


A Second Chance

by twilightguardian



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-08 11:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4303080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightguardian/pseuds/twilightguardian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Digimon and humans are at war. A public, global war. At the 10th anniversary at the start of it all, a teenage Takeru Takaishi starts an important journey that will force him to choose between what is expected of him, and what he feels is right. Trusting in his friends, he and the others will try and end the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Original posting on 15th Anniversary August 1st on fanfiction.net  
> Hello! I'm pleased to join the site and expand my audience. I'll look forward to feedback as it let's me know what I am doing right or wrong, if I've made a mistake, etc. and I wish above all you'll enjoy my story.

“Mom, I'm going out again.” A young teen jogged to the door of their apartment, sliding his messenger bag over his shoulder. He slipped into his shoes, fighting briefly with the heels.

“Again?” His mother's exasperated voice called to him, her head eventually poking out of her study. “You know it's getting closer to the start of school, Takeru.”

Takeru rolled his eyes. “I know, mom! I can go out once in a while too, you know.”

“At least tell me you're going to visit your father and brother while you're out. They are the whole reason we moved back to Odaiba, remember? Not to hang out with your friends.”

Takeru grinned sardonically. “What friends? I only knew Taichi and Hikari Yagami, and only because she and I were the same age. They probably moved away by now.”

His mother gave him an apologetic look. “I had a job offer, but only if we moved to Suginami. I'm sure you'll make lots of friends at your new school.”

Takeru opened the door. “Sure, mom. I'll be the most popular new guy. They're _always_ popular.”

“Not with that attitude, sweetheart.”

“Bye, mom.”

“Oh, honey! Before you go, remember to stay away from the borders. That includes the harbour and beaches!”

“I will, mom. You know me.”

“Exactly why I'm mentioning it.” Takeru laughed and waved goodbye before slipping out the door. He was halfway down the hall by the time his mother opened it again.

“Also, please finish unpacking when you get back! I've been asking for three days!”

“Alright! Alright! Yeesh.” Takeru blushed, hunching his shoulders as he stepped into the elevator. “See you later!”

He was starting to get to know his way around the immediate area. The walks he took every day were definitely paying off. Odaiba wasn't very big, so luckily he could already find his way about quite easily.

He made his way past the school, avoiding the downtown area by following along the beach. He stopped for a while at Kaihin Koen, relaxing for a while and taking in the serenity of the area. It was quickly becoming one of his favourite places to visit on short notice. When he was here it was easy to forget the entire world was under siege.

He stared at the waters and Rainbow Bridge for a good half hour before finally picking himself up and moving on. Making his way over the footpass to Promenade Park, it was apparent to him just how empty the area was. Normally around summer Odaiba was bustling with tourists from all over. Global travel was more difficult in recent years, but not impossible. Even so, tourism took a heavy hit as people opted to stick to their own countries or towns, for the most part. Odaiba was being built up as an incredible entertainment district, and while the attacks didn't outright stop it, the development had been stunted at the turn of the century to make way for increased military presence.

On his way over to Palette Town, Takeru stared intently at the military encampment in the empty lot between destinations. It was a small camp, tents lining the outer brim and a few inside, from what he could see. This camp was assigned to protect the entire area of Daiba, from the shipping yards to the east and south to half of Ariake to the west; the other half and beyond being taken up guardianship by another encampment situated between two parking lots in Shironome. Military camps were stationed in hundreds of places all over Tokyo, but were more frequent around large bodies of water.

The barriers usually stopped by the waters, unable to work effectively on a non-solid surface. None of them reached particularly far. The larger the barrier, the weaker it became. Many attempts had been made to expand the barriers, with little success. In the end it was decided to layer the barriers for maximum protection.

The largest in Japan surrounded the whole of Tokyo. Digimon as weak as the Rookie level could break through with varying degrees of success. It was rare for a digimon to attack the top of the barriers. They were arched in a dome with the barrier processors at the epicentre, making the them strongest nearest to them. Odaiba's was at the Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

Takeru moved on, carefully watching the camp as he did.

The barriers were digital fields that acted as a firewall, keeping digimon out. They weren't perfect, however. Emergences of Rookie and Champion level digimon occasionally broke out, and were sometimes quickly contained before any damage or injury could occur.

Craning to see more of the encampment, Takeru stepped a little closer, painfully aware if he got too close he could be reprimanded by the personnel inside.

He could see movement outside of the barrier, too, in the distance over the water. Were there really digimon out there now, trying to get in? He looked around, squinting in hopes that would make it easier to see. A shadow fell over him, passing by in an instant. His heart sped up, spotting the creature who made the shadow overhead. A large bird-type digimon, red flames made up its plumage, razor-sharp teeth jutting out of its beakless jaws.

Takeru's heart was now in his throat as he watched the hellbird send a shower of fire down, bombarding the barrier. Below, the military camp came alive with activity. Retaliation fire flew effortlessly past the barrier. Birdramon – as he was sure the creature was called – dodging with seemingly mild effort on it's part; barely twitching a muscle as it glided this way and that.

The military was now on full alert, sirens blaring. Yells of orders and directions fought for dominance over the other noises Takeru clapped his hands over his ears, watching the birdramon intently as he backed off from the scene.

Birdramon was soon joined by another bird digimon, a black crow-like creature with a gold helmet over it's face, some sort of metal appendages on the elbow of the wings and three legs. It circled around Birdramon, the bullets from the military guns disintegrating from the creature's aura.

Larger weapons fired at the two digimon, but by this time, Takeru was already sprinting toward Palette Town, keeping his eyes fixated on Daikanransha the entire time.

His legs felt like straw, that they'd give way at the next step he took. He could hear loud banging behind him and only briefly looked back at the near cost of his balance to see the two bird digimon body slamming the barrier. Claws raked at the nearly invisible firewall, sending crackling sparks into the air. Even from this distance, Takeru could smell the undeniable scent of something burning.

His plan to hide in the shopping complex was quickly forgotten the second the sound of something cracking and a high-pitched screeching of claws against the dome filled Takeru's ears. He made a quick turn down the path along the parking lot, over to Tokyo Teleport, taking the steps three at a time until his foot slipped at the last remaining steps. Takeru's teeth clenched, a growl escaping his lips as his knees scraped the concrete steps. Managing to catch himself before his face met the same fate, he caught a brief glimpse at how badly he was shaking before willing himself to get up. He didn't stop or even slow down until he felt the cool shadow of the skyscraper fall over him.

Without bothering to care about other people around him, Takeru finally allowed his body to give and he slumped to the ground. His lungs burned, but he kept gasping for air, sitting like a floppy doll until his body calmed down enough for him to stand.

Peeking over the rail back at the shopping complex, Birdramon and the crow digimon had broken in. They were now fighting directly with the military group. A blast shot from a tank, hitting Birdramon in the chest. It fell to the ground. The military personnel threw something – likely a net – on the flame bird and soon the crow retreated.

“That was intense.” Takeru whispered. It was the first time he'd been that close to a battle. Such attacks were usually reported on a newscast documenting digimon activity, and if the attacks were severe enough would appear on the evening news. Being so close to the conflict, Takeru hoped he didn't get caught on camera. His father would see for sure.

Stepping off the pedestrian path, he headed in the direction of Searea Gobangai complexes. This time he'd cut through downtown. He wasn't sure about his dad, but unless Yamato was with his band, he was likely at home.

Arriving at the door, Takeru hesitated a moment before knocking. It felt weird standing there, as though he didn't belong or was at the wrong door – which he wasn't, he double checked.

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head. He was being stupid. It was his brother and father. He shouldn't be hesitant. Exhaling, he knocked at the door and waited.

A minute later the door opened and a broad-shouldered man answered. His expression changed from mild annoyance to surprise as he looked down at Takeru.

Takeru cleared his throat. “Uh... Hi, dad. Is Yamato home, too?”

Hiroaki nodded, opening the door. “Yeah... Come in, Takeru.”

He complied, following his father into the apartment. Taking a seat at the kitchen table, Takeru looked around the apartment, scratching the back of his head.

Yamato's door was closed. He figured he was in there, doing something or another. Hiroaki walked over, giving a sharp rap on the door.

“Yamato, get out here. We have a visitor.”

“Who is it?” Takeru heard Yamato's voice, muffled through the door.

“Well, why don't you get up off your butt and look?” Hiroaki snapped.

There was a brief silence before Yamato finally opened the door, running his fingers through his hair. “I swear, if it's Jun again I'm going right back – Takeru! Wow. Hey Squirt, I wasn't expecting to see you until school started up again. How have you and mom been?”

“Mom's busy as usual. I've been good. Just gettng used to the area, really.” Takeru said. Yamato and their father both joined him at the table.

“Odaiba isn't very big. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick.” Yamato said. “There isn't too much to this place. Not compared to downtown Tokyo.”

Takeru laughed. “Yeah, I guess if I was really bored I could take a trip off the island.”

“If you go across the water, be aware of your checkpoints.” Hiroaki said. “Be aware of the weak points and stay clear of those areas.”

Yamato laughed. “I'm sure he'd be fine, dad. He's a smart kid, and he's fifteen now. He can take care of himself.”

Takeru smiled, his shoulders relaxing. “Thanks. So, how is your new military job, dad? Mom and I were surprised when we heard you quit your job at Fuji TV.”

“Well, there's not as much need for personnel at the station. I figured I'd find something more productive. But it's great. I sometimes do more of the same due to my experience. There's different jobs to do, depending, and battle training is intense.”

“Yeah, I had a taste of that training. Kind of brutal. I think the military youth program is a lot softer.” Yamato said, leaning back and glancing at the fridge. “Hey, would you like a drink?”

“Yeah, sure. So, how come you took an adult course if you're still seventeen?”

“Well, there isn't much of a point getting myself stuck in a youth program when I'm going to be eighteen in less than a year. What about you? You're fifteen now. You can join the youth program and get the full experience.” Yamato got up and started to rummage the fridge.

“I... don't know. Maybe. It's kind of scary, isn't it? Fighting digimon in combat?” Takeru didn't fail to notice the look his dad was giving him.

“It can be frightening.” Hiroaki said. “But you get used to it after a while of going at it.” Takeru nodded. Yamato placed a drink down in front of Takeru. He thanked him and took a sip.

“By the way, have you met any friends since moving here?” Yamato asked.

Takeru shook his head. “No. I hope I'll meet a few people when school starts up. Maybe I'll join the basketball team.”

“Hikari Yagami still lives in Searea Gobangai. You remember her, right?” Takeru's eyes widened. “She used to ask about you all the time after you left.”

“Yeah? It's been... nearly eleven years. I doubt she still remembers me. We were only five.” Yamato shrugged.

“Well, it's better than having no one around at all.”

“True.” Takeru said softly. Maybe it would work out. If he and Hikari could reconnect then he could have an easier time of adjusting to a new school. He wondered how much she changed.

Takeru talked with Yamato and their dad for a few hours. It was nearly sunset by the time he left. Perhps he'd go back to Kaien Koen before heading home.

“Takeru!” A feminine voice called out from behind him. Shocked, and mildly curious, Takeru turned around. A girl with behaved, light brown hair ran down the steps of a nearby building, stopping in front of him. A camera case around her neck swayed with her movements. “It is you! I hardly recognized you!”

“Uh,” He said stupidly. “Hi. Don't mean to be rude, but how do you know my name?” The girl's smile faded into a pout.

“You don't remember?” She did look vaguely familiar, Takeru had to admit. He couldn't quite place a name, however. “Maybe you'll remember this? Just one second...”

The girl dug around in her pockets before taking out a whistle. Takeru's eyes widened. She put the whistle up to her lips and blew softly.

“Hikari?” Her smile returned. “Wow, hi! It's great to see you. You look...” Amazing. “different.”

She giggled. “So do you, but I think I'd recognize that blond mop of yours anywhere.” She ruffled his unkempt hair. Takeru laughed and grabbed her hands.

“Miss Yagami, so bold. What happened to the shy girl I knew?”

Hikari laced fingers with him and squeezed, causing his grip to loosen. She slipped out of his grasp. “Maybe she grew up a bit?”

It was true. She had a different air about her. She held herself more confidently and spoke loudly with conviction, not to mention how playful she was being. When they were little she rarely spoke without her whistle, and her older brother was usually always somewhere close by. By the time Takeru moved away, Hikari had become comfortable enough to speak to him without the whistle, but she was so soft spoken it was often hard to hear her.

“Pretty impressive change.” Takeru smiled. “So, how have you been?”

“Oh, I'm fine. Nothing in my life has been all that entertaining. Other than Taichi moving out. But that's a given.”

“Wow, already? My brother is still living with dad. Did he graduate early? Or just not attend senior high school?”

“He attended. But things have been a little... troubled at home in the last few years.” Hikari's eyes danced around, avoiding eye contact with Takeru. He gently touched her shoulder.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She eventually looked up at him, and gave a small, forced smile. He took a step down the concrete stairs, holding his hand out to her. “Come on, we'll go to Kaihin Koen.”

“That's near a beach.” She looked around, a little worried.

“I know. But it's kind of serene, don't you think? I have only been living here for a few days, but I like going there. Besides, isn't it one of the areas that's protected by the coast guards?”

Hikari was silent for a moment, her eyes cast down in thought. “I guess it would be fine to go there. I'd like to spend more time with you.”

Takeru smiled, turning around to face the beach. “Hikari Yagami the rebel.”

She giggled. “Maybe Takeru Takaishi is just a bad influence?”

Takeru laughs, stopping at the bottom of the steps and turned around to face her. “Perhaps. But at least you accept that. So, how did you know to find me outside?”

"Yamato called after you left and told me you visited."

Crossing the street, they walked through the brief strip of foliage to walk along the beach, shoes and socks tucked in their hands. Neither of them talked, just enjoying the sight and smell of the ocean. Choosing a spot, they settled down, wrapping their arms around their legs. Hikari stared out at the water, deep in thought.

“My brother... renounced the military.” She said after a prolonged silence. Takeru looked over at her, his mouth slightly agape at the news. He studied her expression, biting the inside of his lips at the worried look on her face.

“There are plenty of people who don't necessarily agree with how the military runs things. Your family isn't heavily involved in the war, are they?”

Hikari shook her head. “My father kind of backs them with donations when he can, but that's about it. That's not the problem. He joined... an anti-military rebellion group.”

“What!” Takeru winced at the volume that reaction came with. He tucked his head into his shoulders, giving Hikari an apologetic look. “Aren't those guys who actively meddle in the military's affairs?”

“Yes. They don't just meddle, though. Some groups are actively pro-digimon. People say these goups are so demented they actually want mankind to lose and for digimon to take over.” She hugged herself, resting her chin on her knees. “His reputation isn't good, Takeru. There are people all over, even in school who talk bad about him. Sometimes they even bully me for having him as a brother, saying I'll join him.”

Takeru frowned. “That's terrible. They shouldn't harass you just because of a decision your brother made.” He wondered if he'd like this new school if the situation was that bad.

Hikari gave him a reassuring smile. “It's alright. There are some people who stick up for me, like Daisuke Motomiya and his group. They're part of the military's junior division, so he has a lot of influence.”

His expression softened back into a smile. He never heard of this kid, but he didn't seem like a bad guy from Hikari's description. He also must have been impressive if he made the junior Division. “That's good.”

Not knowing what else to say he laid back into the sand, hands cushioning his head. They sat like this for a while, occasionally talking about various subjects, mostly to do with nostalgia and recalling their past together. Neither of them realized the time until the sun was nearly set. They parted ways with the promise they'd see each other more often.

Takeru walked along the beach, a smile plastered on his face like it would never go away. There was a swell of positive emotions, making him feel light and energetic. Quickly putting on his shoes and brushing himself off of sand, he ran home, the feeling still staying as he stepped through the door.

“I'm home.” He announced, taking his shoes off at the door. He stopped in the kitchen to grab a snack before heading off to his room. The state of his bedroom reminded him he had to unpack still. Other than a few clothes, his bed and a few school-related essentials, pretty well everything else was still in boxes, stacked haphazardly around the floor and on the edge of his bed. Taking a bite of his snack, he went to work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Thank you for reading chapter 2 of my fanfic. Reviews would be highly appreciated, as it lets me know what you liked about my story, and if I made errors.

Much to Takeru's surprise, he wasn't feeling as much anxiety about attending his new school as he thought. He figured it was due to the fact that Hikari was in the same school. Even if they weren't in the same class, knowing she was there helped kill the feeling of loneliness.

His optimism and good mood only increased as he walked in for his formal introduction to the class. He saw her sitting there in the middle of the room, just off in the row to the right. There was a guy seated a little behind in the farthest row who slouched over on his desk, elbow planted and head leaning against his palm. Unlike everyone else, he was ignoring the front, instead choosing to stare at the back of Hikari's head.

This guy had short spiky brown hair, a tanned complexion and dawned a blue jacket with a fire pattern. Even if the schools had slacked on the dress code in recent years, - especially for those in the military program - it was rather ostentatious in Takeru's opinion. Only when Takeru was directed to sit beside Hikari did the brunet look over, the childhood friends whispering hellos to each other as he sat.

He didn't fail to notice the glare the spiky haired boy was giving him, a humorous mixture of anger and disbelief. Takeru couldn't help but smirk. Whoever this guy was, he seemed sensitive to the fact that Takeru has a history with Hikari to talk with her like this.

Class went rather smoothly, and he even managed to learn a few names of his other classmates. Most of them he could recall were from the basketball team, which he signed up for during the first break. He wasn't sure if he dodged the bullet or not with that angry-looking kid. As they packed up their things he overheard him mention something about soccer. While having no interest in it, Takeru did amuse himself with thoughts of beating him in a game.

It had been Taichi's sport. He knew mostly about how to play through him. He remembered Taichi spending many gleeful afternoons teaching him and Hikari how to kick the ball. He was a little impatient, hoping the two four year olds would become as good as he was in a few misguided lessons. But he was never mean to them for not being quite able to get it. That was what kept those memories good ones.

On his way out the door, the brown haired kid stopped Takeru as he tried to leave, stepping in between him and freedom. He folded his arms in front of his chest, staring indignantly at him. He wasn't blinking. Takeru sighed, his shoulders slumping.

“Can I be let through, please? I'd like to go home.” Takeru said dully.

“Who do you think you are, getting all buddy-buddy with Hikari?” The brunet said, loudly. Takeru's eyes narrowed.

“What do you care?” Takeru stepped forward, trying to get the other teen to budge. A hand grabbed Takeru's shoulder, shoving him back.

“I'm not done talking to you, blondy. Answer my question.”

“I don't care. It's none of your business what goes on between Hikari and I.” Once again, Takeru made an attempt at stepping past the brunet and was again stopped by him.

“Yeah, it kind of is my business. See this?” He opened his jacket, revealing his school uniform underneath. It was the first thing Takeru noticed, the badge on the other hand was what the kid was pointing to. On the inside of the jacket was a badge for the military's youth program. “Due to the situation, which is digimon-related, I have taken it upon myself to protect Hikari Yagami from harrassment as an official member of the Anti-Digimon Youth Division.”

It dawned on Takeru now. “Oh, you're Daisuke.” The situation he was talking about must have been Taichi going rogue. Knowing his name apparently caught Daisuke off guard as he dropped his jacket, giving a blank stare. “Hikari mentioned some kid named Daisuke helping her out yesterday.”

“Hikari was talking about me, was she?” Takeru's eye twitched. He hated the way Daisuke said those words; smug with an underlying tone of hopeful. As though it were an obvious conclusion to something inevitable.

“She talked about a lot of things. If it means you'll let me go, Hikari and I are childhood friends. We reconnected yesterday when my brother told her I moved back into the area.”

“Back into the area, huh?” Daisuke said, seeming to completely forget to step aside once Takeru relented his personal info. “Must not have been that long ago because Hikari was living in Hikarigaoka when she was younger.”

“So was I.” Takeru said with a sigh, trying not to show his irritation as Daisuke showed no sign of moving. As much as he liked the fact that he was no longer being accusatory toward him, he still wanted to leave. “Our parents left soon after the digimon attacked Hikarigaoka. Hikari's parents moved to Odaiba and I lived here for only a few months before moving to Suginami.”

At least where he came from was public knowledge. Takeru pushed past Daisuke, ignoring the sounds of protest from the other boy. He was a quarter the way down the hall when Daisuke called out to him again.

“Hey, you dropped some-” Takeru turned around, seeing Daisuke actually looking at the pamphlet in his hand. It was a pamphlet that his father had given him to read over. He stuck it in his backpack to look over during lunch. Daisuke let his hand drop to his side, giving Takeru an amused look.

“Looking to join the youth division? You? You don't look like you have what it takes. No offence.” It was clear he didn't mean that.

“Neither do you. Yet here you stand.” Takeru held out his hand for the pamphlet. Daisuke looked at his hand and held the pamphlet closer to his body. With a frustrated sigh, Takeru turned around and swiftly walked down the hallway. Daisuke was calling him to come back, but he ignored him and jogged down the stairs, missing the last two steps, holding the railing as he rounded the corner and continued down until he was outside. From there it was a short run back to the apartments.

He stopped at AiMart for a moment to grab a new pamphlet from a stack next to the magazines and an ice cream. Takeru laid on his bed, casually nibbling at the ice cream as he read through the pamphlet.

He unfolded the pamphlet and started to read through it. The first page told what the youth program was about. The program was to train teenagers who were interested in joining the army but were yet too young to better prepare them. It was designed specifically to combat digimon. Soldiers that were in or came out of this would rarely ever go into regular combat.  
The next section was about digimon themselves. Creatures from another world who first appeared around a decade ago in an event known as the First Contact Digimon Incident – or just the Digimon Incident. Supposedly, a group of kids disappeared shortly after and were never heard from again. This incident was pretty common knowledge, especially in the Tokyo area. The pamphlet went on to explain the different levels digimon could obtain.

Digimon were born from eggs, and this first stage after hatching was known as Baby. From there, digimon became In-Training, which was slightly more powerful. Both forms were easily dealt with little danger to humans. Their Rookie forms, however, were more problematic. These forms were considered weak compared to higher levels, but could be dangerous to the average unarmed or lightly armed citizen and being capable of damaging property. Champions were often much larger and more powerful, capable of large area destruction, and Ultimates were stronger than that. For both of the last tiers, it was recommended only trained personnel deal with them.

The third page had the questions of what digimon wanted and what the reader could do to help. The pamphlet explained that no one knew what digimon wanted other than land, and didn’t object to getting rid of humans in order to do so.

Basically an invasion. Individuals aged sixteen could sign up and start training to use technology and fight weak digimon under the careful supervision of seasoned veterans in a highly protected facility in the middle of Tokyo. Those who joined would be instructed by those with years of experience dealing specifically with the threat of digimon.

Takeru finished the last of his ice cream, biting down on the stick. He wondered briefly how many different types of combat were utilized to fight digimon. Was it just technology? Or did they have some sort of hand-to-hand combat system in mind? 

With a thoughtful look, Takeru flipped the pamphlet over. There wasn’t much more information on the other side. There were photographs of teenagers in uniform, working on complicated tech, standing guard over the rainbow bridge, and even the aftermath of a battle, with some small orange, round digimon in a cage, held up by a very proud looking boy standing beside a tall man. 

One of the kids he recognized. It was that Daisuke guy. He appeared in quite a few of these photos, actually. Takeru frowned. If he did join this group, that would mean he’d have to deal with Daisuke a lot. He wasn’t exactly fond of him now, after the incident after school. Even if he did claim it was all to protect Hikari, that didn’t give him the right to go around interrogating anyone who got close to her. It looked more like an excuse to check out the competition. Being that protective of her would only isolate her further, and that didn’t sit well with him.

His eyes travelled back to the picture of the digimon in the cage. He didn’t know why, but he was drawn to it for some reason. It was an In-Training stage known as a Tsunomon. He never encountered this species, but there was something about it.

Takeru tried to figure out what it was that drew him to the picture. The horn perhaps? It made up at least a third of the digimon’s body size. No, that wasn’t it. The shape? No. The colour…

Images ran through Takeru’s mind, flashes of bright blinding light, men in military uniforms filled his vision, all unfamiliar faces if he could see a face at all. His father was there, yelling at him. The noise was deafening, orders being issues, his father calling his name, and shrill cries filled his ears. And a few flashes of orange accompanied a sick feeling in Takeru's stomach.

Takeru felt his knees hit the hard floor as he fell off his bed, kneeling on his knees and elbows, tucking his head in until it almost touched the wood floor. The last thing he saw was the frantic flapping of bat wings.

Taking a few moments to compose himself, Takeru just stayed there motionless apart from the laboured panting. The first movement he made was to swallow the saliva that was starting to trickle out of his open mouth.

Sitting up, he wiped his mouth clean and leaned his back against his bed. What was that just now? He only realized now that his body was shaking, sweat droplets forming and sliding down his face. His legs felt like jelly.

Was that a digimon attack? Had he really been that close to a digimon before? Takeru frowned, trying to recall ever being in that kind of situation. Apart from the attack yesterday, he couldn't think of anything. He wasn't even that close to that incident. Nor could he remember ever being near such surroundings, though he had to admit he barely saw any of it.

Scraping through the flashes of memory, Takeru tried to focus on the background. Well, there was dirt. A hill, and barbwire fencing or chain-link fence. It was all he could recover. Unfortunately it seemed that would be all he could get from those brief flashes of memory. If a digimon really did attack him in the past, it was likely he blocked out the traumatic memory.

He needed to take a walk to clear his head. Glancing back up at the pamphlet, it didn't take Takeru long to decide to check out the facility where all the training would be done. Then again, perhaps he should stay and ask his mom about what just happened to him.

He stepped outside after about ten minutes of deliberation. Well, if he was going to check out the facility, it might as well be while the sun was still up. His mother wasn't in her work room, anyway. Likely, she had retired to her room for a short nap before resuming her work.

She often had an afternoon nap so she could easily work late into the night, grabbing just enough sleep before starting her work day all over again. He wouldn't want to disturb her.

Catching the Tokyo Waterfront line from Odaiba Kaihin Koen station, Takeru soon found himself in a relatively unfamiliar part of the city. It wasn't often that he ever went to Shinbashi. Yet, looking down at the address on the pamphlet, the building was definitely around here somewhere.

As he wandered around, he wondered how big the building could even be if it was so close to the centre of the city like this. If they were going to have a properly large facility, they would have had to do a lot of reconstruction. It was only ten years ago after all, so before that other buildings would have been there prior.

Then again, there had been a lot of damage taken in the early years. Perhaps instead of rebuilding those exactly as they had before, the military instead bought a plot of land. That was the case with a few areas in the ground zero area, Shinjuku. This hypothesis seemed to be true as Takeru rounded a corner and stumbled upon a very large building.

The address was the same as the pamphlet. He wondered if he could go in to get any further information. Would they allow guests in? How much of the building would he be able to see?

Takeru stood in front of the building, having these mental conversations with himself, barely noticing when a rather tall man with short cropped black hair, a smart suit and glasses stepped out of the building. He nearly ran into Takeru.

"Oh, sorry." The man grunted. Takeru, slightly startled, sidestepped.

"It's alright, sir." Takeru mumbled back. The man continue on a few steps before stopping, and turned around.

"You lost, kid? Or are you interested in the program?"

"The program... But I'm not sure if I want to join or not." Takeru said, glancing back at the man. Looking at him now, Takeru recognized him from the pictures in the pamphlet. The man held out his hand to him.

"My name is Keisuke Tachikawa. I run the technology division for the Digimon Eradication program."

"Takeru Takaishi." Takeru said, briefly shaking his hand. "I was mostly just curious for now. My father, Hiroaki Ishida and my brother, Yamato Ishida are in the military already."

"I see. Well, if you're interested in our program, I encourage you to go inside. You look like a healthy young man. We could use more boys like you in our program. I'm sure you'd do very well."

He nodded a farewell to Takeru and went on his way. Takeru gave a small bow before turning back to the building. He took a step forward, and felt a hand grab his, another covering his mouth. Before Takeru could comprehend what was happening, he was dragged into a nearby alleyway.

Takeru struggled against his captor, who was larger and stronger by the feel of it. With only slight difficulty, he got Takeru far into the alleyway. Managing to break away, seemingly only because the assailant let him go, Takeru whirled around.

"What the hell is the big id-... Taichi?" Takeru's body laxed as he stared at the older man in surprise. He was a lot older now than the last time Takeru saw him. But he still had the same mop of hair he had back when they were kids.

Taichi gave him a lopsided grin. "Hey there, squirt. Long time no see, right?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Taichi, what's with dragging me into this alleyway? Why is Hikari saying you're part of the digimon sympathizers?" Taichi held his hand up.

"Whoa, that's a lot of questions. Just hang on. First of all, you saw Hikari? It's been a while since I've seen her. I haven't exactly been home since I graduated."

"I moved back to Odaiba a little while ago. She said she was worried about you."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Taichi said, rubbing the back of his neck. He leaned against the wall. "It's true, I joined a group that doesn't quite agree with the military. So I guess I'm a bit of an outlaw, if there is such a thing anymore."

"Why did you drag me in the alley?" Takeru asked again. Taichi looked back at him and gave a sympathetic smile.

"I saw you talking with that guy. I thought it would be kind of important to talk to you myself before you made any rash decisions."

"Rash decisions?" Takeru repeated carefully. "What are you talking about? What I do with my spare time is my business."

"True." Taichi said. He rubbed the back of his neck again. "Maybe it was just a waste of time talking to you, if you're determined to join that place. I just wanted to let you know that there are other methods to dealing with the digimon invasion than simply murdering them all."

He shrugged and walked past Takeru, not looking back but instead giving a wave. "See you, squirt."

Takeru left the alleyway, more confused than before. He decided to walk around Shinbashi a while longer to sort out his thoughts. A lot happened today. There was a lot to sort through. Hopefully he could get it all done before it got too late. The sun was already setting.

Before long, Takeru found him in a construction zone. Based on the surrounding buildings, it was the remains of a digimon attack. It was so far into the city. Likely it had to be a weakness in the barrier, or one of the in-between zones. Takeru stopped. When did he travel so far?

It was then that he heard soft whimpers coming from inside the debris. Slowly, Takeru approached the site, ducking under a beam and sliding down a patch of muddy hill. He was nervous. The feeling in his stomach returned. Removing a pile of trash, Takeru jumped back when an orange and cream digimon was uncovered.

He fell back hard on his backside, and scrambled until his head met a beam. Panting heavily, Takeru's eyes darted around. They fell back to the digimon in question, who didn't move. It was bean-shaped, with four legs ending in paws, and bat-like wings in place of ears. Large blue eyes were red and watery with tears. It looked like one of it's wings and legs were caught in some sort of trap.

Takeru sat there, staring mouth agape, unsure what to do.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting more regularly to catch up with the other site. Thank you for the reviews.

Takeru was sure his heart was in his throat, pounding wildly. He was also sure it was going to bust if he moved. So there he sat, staring wide eyed at this creature, a metre in front of him. A digimon.

The digimon was staring back at him. It wasn’t moving. Maybe if he could get up slowly he could get out and find help without being attacked.

That is, if he could get his body to move. He was shaking, and he felt light. He could spring up and bolt. But his body wasn’t moving no matter how loudly his mind was screaming.

A whimpering sound met his ears. Great. Now he was crying like a kid. Maybe Daisuke was right; he wasn’t cut out for the youth division after all.

Listening, it only took a few seconds to realize the whimpering wasn’t coming from him. Takeru looked around. Was there a kid here after all? His eyes fell on the digimon before him. Its orange body was also shaking, large eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched. Its belly had fallen into the dirt as it feebly pawed at the trap with its free leg. Blood was trickling from the open wound, gushing periodically and dissolving into pixels.

“Digimon bleed?” Takeru spoke without thinking, causing the rather small creature’s large eyes to open. The whimpers stopped. Takeru tensed and leaned back slightly. The digimon sniffed.

“What?” It squeaked. Its voice sounded young, and high pitched.

“Uh…” Takeru said smartly, his shoulders managing to relax. “I just didn’t know digimon bled.” Or spoke.

“Of course digimon bleed.” The digimon said indignantly. “What kind of mon doesn’t?”

“I don’t know.” Takeru said lowly, his eyes shifting around uncomfortably. “I actually don’t know much about digimon other than they’re dangerous. I’m just a civilian.” There was a long pause. The digimon stared at the trap, seeming to give up on trying to pry itself free for the moment.

“What’s a civilian?”

Takeru stared, mouth slightly agape, trying to find his words. “A… non-combatant. A regular person.”

“Not every human fights?” There was genuine curiosity in his voice.

“N-no. Fighting isn’t something we normally do.” Takeru’s thoughts immediately went to all the wars fought in antiquity and the smaller, more domestic scuffles. That would be a little difficult to explain, though. One step at a time. He had to choose his words cautiously. “Don’t digimon have times when they don’t fight?”

Once again, his mind went to what he’d been told about digimon. He’d feel foolish if he asked anyone that question. As far as anyone was concerned, digimon were just angry beasts. Now that a digimon was in front of him, however, he guessed he couldn’t help himself.

“I guess, sometimes. Though everyone’s been fighting more and more lately.”

“I… I see.” The silence allowed Takeru time to think, though whether or not that was a good thing was yet to be seen.

“This is really weird.” Takeru mumbled with a sigh. The digimon raised an eyebrow. “Well, I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”

“I guess...” It looked down at its caught foot and wing. Takeru chewed apprehensively on his lip. He was going to do it. It was crazy, but he’d still try.

“Hey… do you want out of there?” It gave him a suspicious glare.

“No, I like it here. It’s good for my health.” Takeru reeled a bit.

“Wow, sassy.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Do all digimon have a mouth, or is it just you?”

“Depends on what mon you talk to. Not like I’d expect a human to talk to a digimon.”

“I’m talking to a digimon,” Takeru countered.

“A second time,” It snapped.

“Well, fine.” Takeru slowly stood up, minding his head and the beam hanging in his way. “I really was going to get you out of there, provided you don’t bite my hand off. Then you could have gone off back to your own world where you belong.”

“…You’d really do that?” Takeru turned back to face the orange digimon.

“Yeah. I came here to help who was crying. I might as well do that, even if you aren’t a human kid.”

It looked down at its trapped limbs, then nodded. Takeru slowly bent down, using the beam to steady himself.

“You’re not going to bite me, right?”

“I won’t.”

Takeru slowly put more weight on his knees, leaning forward. His free hand found the dirt. Takeru located his heart again as it began to pound in his chest. His hand seemed to take forever to reach the digimon. Its blue eyes closed tightly. Takeru tested the strength of the trap before adjusting himself, freeing both hands. He pried, sliding his fingers widely apart. He grunted as the trap gave way, trying his best to keep it from slipping and possibly chopping pieces of himself and the digimon clean off. The trap gave a little and slowly opened. The digimon slipped its wing out, and moments later the paw was freed.

Takeru immediately tore his hands away, and the trap snapped shut. He fell back, staring at the digimon, who was sitting on its hind legs. He quickly got to his feet, causing the digimon to jump.

“Well, you’re free now. Just go back to your world and neither armies will have to get involved, right?” He turned around, stepping over some rubble. There was a brief thought of the digimon attacking him while his back was turned. He shook it from his mind.

“Hey,” Takeru turned his head to look at the digimon. “Thank you.”

The blond smiled. “You’re welcome. My name is Takeru, by the way.”

“Patamon.” Takeru climbed up the small bank and finally cleared the construction area. He jogged away from the site, feeling rather weightless. He was in a good mood, he decided, after a moment of deliberation. He survived an encounter with a digimon. Not only had he survived, he had a civil conversation.

Takeru frowned as he continued on, looking up occasionally to make sure he didn’t run into anything. But he was running on automatic.

Were digimon really the monsters the army made them out to be? Obviously they could have human-level intelligence, that much was well known. But Patamon was clearly speaking a human tongue. Patamon clearly seemed capable of reasoning. He also displayed emotions. That was one of the reasons why he’d decided to help in the first place. ‘He.’ Well, Takeru figured it was a ‘he,’ even if by his voice alone. It didn’t feel right to call a being like that an ‘it,’ in any case.

Spotting a convenience store, Takeru slowed down and entered. He was only somewhat aware of what he was doing until the box of bandages were in his hands. He stared down at them. His brows furrowed. His eyes travelled to his fingers. One of them had a small cut. Well, that certainly was an excuse. However, he knew why he’d come in for these.

“I must be out of my mind.” He muttered. He walked to the front, grabbing a pair of chocolate bars. At least he should get a more traditional peace offering. Did digimon eat chocolate?

He paid for the items and started back in the direction of the construction site. He took the path at a slower rate. Mixed feelings ran through his mind. On one hand, he kind of hoped Patamon was still there. On the other, he hoped Patamon was long gone. It was all too easy for this to just end at that. He picked up his pace.

Arriving back at the construction site, Takeru located the opening he fell into. The trap was empty. Takeru exhaled in a mixture of relief and disappointment.

He turned around and began to make his way out of the area. It would be best to report a sighting and possible gate in the site. That would mean he’d have to admit he went poking around, though. He was sure he wouldn’t get in trouble. He thought he heard someone, after all.

Movement in the outer peripheral of Takeru’s vision stopped him in his tracks. With slight laboured breathing, he looked around.

A flash of orange flew into Takeru’s line of sight and with force, pushed him down behind a slab of concrete. It wasn’t until Takeru caught his breath that he saw Patamon standing in front of him, peaking around the corner.

“Patamon… what—“

Patamon gave a curt shushing, keeping his eyes on whatever was beyond. Takeru looked around before finding a protected, dark area and promptly stuffing himself in the tight nest of bars. No sooner had he gotten his straggling limb inside the darkness did a large black paw come into view.

The dog digimon looked around, its eyes falling on Patamon. Lowering its head, the digimon spoke in a low, growling voice that made Takeru’s hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“What are you doing here, Patamon? This breech zone hasn’t been cleared as safe yet.”

Patamon fidgeted uncomfortably, his eyes darting from place to place, always avoiding looking in Takeru’s direction. “I guess I was curious what the human world looked like.”

“Go back to the Digital World, Patamon. I’ll check things out here. When I deem it safe, we’ll start our conquest of this area.”

With a small sigh, Patamon nodded and turned in the direction of the area Takeru found him in. Patamon glanced back at the dog. 

“Dobermon, please be careful. The humans have set traps here. I was caught in one, but managed to free myself.” He held up his wing for emphasis. It still looked badly wounded, though was no longer bleeding.

Dobermon nodded. “I shall, little one.”

The dog took a few steps past Takeru’s hiding place and stopped. Takeru held his breath, cupping his hand over his mouth and nose. Dobermon sniffed at the air.

“I smell a human. A human and something sweet.” 

Takeru cursed himself silently. Of course all that running around would make him sweat. Buying the chocolate was dumb, too. He lifted himself up in an effort to scoot back silently as he could, trying his best to stifle the sound of shifting dirt and gravel. Cold metal hit his skin and Takeru jumped, nearly gasping audibly. Feeling around with his free hand clumsily, Takeru ducked under the beam. Dobermon crouched down, chest in the dirt and sniffed the spot in front of where Takeru had just been.

“Are you sure a human is here right now?” Patamon asked nervously.

“Maybe not right now. But recently. Very recently.” Dobermon crawled further inside Takeru’s precious hiding place. Takeru was against a half destroyed concrete wall, pressing himself hard into the cold rock and wishing he could melt into it like a chameleon. His foot pushed at the dirt, and into Dobermon’s nose. The digimon snuffed the dirt away and growled.

Frantically looking around, Takeru scrambled to the left and toward an open area as Dobermon opened its mouth.

“Schwarts Strahl!” A beam shot from the digimon’s mouth, missing Takeru barely by a foot. He ducked, and hastened to his feet, running as fast as the space would allow a crouched teen. A metal bar stuck from a chipped block of concrete. The bar was bent badly and looked like it could break off. If he could just get to it he’d at least have something in terms of a weapon.

Reaching the bar, Takeru placed his foot on the concrete slab and pulled on the bar. It wasn’t coming off. Dobermon freed himself from the mess of beams and circled around. He ran full force at Takeru, mouth lined with sharp teeth opened wide, ready to snap shut around his throat.

With a grunt, Takeru pulled on the slab with all his strength, lifting it and smacking it into Dobermon’s shoulder. He felt the impact reverberating through the bar and into his hands; the sturdy body and how it caved to the weight of the concrete. The force of the impact was enough to send Dobermon into the dirt with a yelp of pain. The slab was nearly wrenched from Takeru’s hand by its own weight, and he conceded letting it fall hard on the ground, nearly pulling him down with it.

Dobermon stood up and shook himself, growling at Takeru. The teen stepped back, sweat trickling down the side of his face. The entrance to the site wasn’t that close, but he could still get to it. Unfortunately, he was sure this digimon could easily run him down before that. He took a step back.

The helldog lunged at Takeru, who braced himself. He lifted his makeshift hammer a second time, but with another beam attack from the digimon’s mouth, the hammer was obliterated, causing Takeru to fall backwards. Dobermon leaped, claws outstretched toward Takeru.

He shifted, his face landing in between Dobermon’s large paws, a claw scraping at his cheek. The digimon’s maw flew at Takeru’s face, which he caught by grabbing at the dog’s cheeks. Rows of sharp teeth drew slowly closer, putrid hot breath and drool dripping on Takeru’s face. He pushed on the skin harder, fingernails scraping at the inside of the dog’s mouth.

Takeru’s eyes opened, seeing a clear ball of air flying toward a rickety structure above himself and Dobermon. The bubble hit, causing the rubble to break off and fall toward himself and the digimon. With a kick, Takeru pulled the digimon’s feet out from under it and used the precious moment to slide out of the way. The rubble fell on Dobermon as it was trying to stand, pinning him to the ground.

Panting heavily, Takeru spent a moment letting his brain catch up enough to process what happened. A mistake, perhaps, as his legs turned to jelly. He willed himself to move, heading on wobbly knees to the exit.

Patamon flew into view, a worried look on his face. He glanced back at Dobermon, who was now freeing himself from the rubble. Takeru climbed with slight difficulty up the mound, small paws from Patamon on his back as the orange jellybean shaped creature helped a little. Takeru didn’t stop until he was well out of the construction site and into a nearby alleyway.

His back slammed against the wall and slid down. He sat there, panting heavily. Patamon was also breathing heavily, and also looked quite anxious. Takeru held his hand out toward Patamon, who merely looked at his outstretched hand before slowly putting his paw on the palm. Gently, Takeru’s fingers closed.

“Thank you.” Takeru said. “That was you… wasn’t it? That brought the rubble down?”

“Yes.” Patamon said.

“Can I ask why?” Patamon looked into Takeru’s eyes, searching for something.

“You helped me out. I thought I’d return the favour. Why’d you come back?”

Takeru gave a weak chuckle. “Well, a peace offering, kind of. If you were still there.” He pulled the squished chocolate bar from his pockets, presenting them to Patamon. He also pulled out the band aids. “I thought maybe you needed these.”

Patamon looked down at the band aids. “What are they?”

“They’re band aids.” Takeru explained, taking one out of the box and peeled off the packaging. He showed Patamon the cut and put the strip around his finger. “They keep dirt and bacteria out of your wounds, allowing them to heal faster.”

“I see…” Patamon picked one up and inspected it. He looked back up at Takeru. “Thank you.”

Takeru grinned and pulled out his cellphone. “I have to contact someone about the breach in that old building. If it was just you in there, I’d make sure you went back through. But if Dobermon’s there, he’s going to probably try and come after me and hurt a lot of people in the process.”

Patamon looked uncomfortable at this, but seemed satisfied with Takeru’s explanation of why. He busied himself with trying to unwrap the band aid, and unsticking himself with the ends long enough to wrap one around his wing. Takeru reached out to touch it, but Patamon flinched away.

Takeru sighed. “Look, I’m sorry that it has to be like that. You can run back in and go through before anyone gets there.”

Patamon shook his head. “I’ll probably be seen. I wasn’t thinking of that when I followed you here. Someone probably already saw me. They’re going to find me and delete me. I should never have come here.”

Takeru thought for a moment, watching Patamon apply the band aids. “Well… maybe you can live here, then.”

Patamon looked up at him. “What? How do you expect me to do that?”

“Uh, well…” Takeru scratched his cheek in thought. “There’s a place around my home that is forested. Odaiba isn’t all that crowded. Oh… I guess that wouldn’t work because we’d have to go over Rainbow Bridge and a lot of checkpoints. Well, there’s always a park. It would need to be big enough that you can easily hide. You’re small, so it shouldn’t be that difficult. What about Hamarikyu Gardens?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a park not that far from here. It’s quite big, so there’s lots of places to hide. It’s not all that far from where I live, either. I can come visit you.”

“You’d really come visit me?” Patamon asked, his ears perking a little.

Takeru smiled. “Well, of course! We’re… I guess friends now, aren’t we?”

Patamon looked at him, as though he realized as well how weird a concept this was. A smile slowly appeared on his face. “Yeah. I guess we are!”

“Now to get you there.” Takeru mused. He looked around for any kind of inspiration. “Maybe you could hide in my jacket.”

Patamon scrunched his face. “In your jacket? Will that really work?”

Takeru looked down at his jacket. It was somewhat padded. There was a chance he could fit the digimon naturally in there. “Yeah, maybe. I doubt anyone will ask.”  
“If you say so.” Patamon said slowly.

Takeru stood up and unzipped his jacket. He picked Patamon up gingerly and tucked him inside his jacket. He zipped it up experimentally. It didn’t look all that bad. “How are you doing, Patamon?”

“It’s kind of hard to breathe.” Patamon said, his voice muffled from the jacket.

“You think you can make a trip to the park?”  
“I think so.”

“Great.” Takeru picked up the box and the chocolates, stuffed them in his pockets and casually walked out of the alleyway. He carefully looked at all the people who passed by. So far, they didn’t seem to pay attention. 

Takeru walked to the gardens, not really calming down until they arrived. Patamon on the other hand was stiff even after. It was a gruelling fifteen minute walk for both of them. Takeru didn’t let Patamon out until they were well inside the gardens, and into a thick part of the trees.

Patamon flew out of his jacket as soon as Takeru unzipped it. He landed on the ground and looked around.

“So, what do you think? Would living here for a while be alright? We can make you a little shelter when it rains.”

“It looks really pretty here. Like we left the city.” Patamon turned around to look around more.

“I’m glad.” Takeru sat down, resting his back against a tree. He took out his cell again and looked at it, and dialed the number for a response squad. Patamon stood perfectly still as the phone rang, as though they’d hear if he twitched a muscle. A woman answered on the other end in a professional tone.

“Ah, yes. I’d like to report a digimon sighting in Shinbashi. There’s a building being torn down and I think a digimon opened a gate in there. Sorry? Do I know the name of the digimon? Dobermon, I think. No, ma’am, I didn’t.” Takeru answered the woman’s questions and gave the address of the old building. He hung up and looked down at Patamon. He still looked uncomfortable about Takeru calling.

“If Dobermon is smart he hears the military pull up and runs back to the portal.” Takeru said. “Anyway, it’s getting late. I should probably head home soon.”

“Okay.” Takeru stood up, pulling the chocolate bar out of his pocket and tossing it to Patamon, who caught it.

“It’s not that great a dinner, but you won’t go hungry.” Patamon and Takeru smiled at each other. He left for home, feeling a lot more optimistic.


	4. Chapter 4

Two weeks passed since the incident at the construction site. Takeru went to meet Patamon every day after classes and after school activities finished. He could bring food for Patamon to eat and they’d talk until well after the sun set.  
Their topics were varied, but mostly centred around the back and forth exchange of information about their worlds. Patamon opened up a lot after the first few days and was even enthusiastic about learning about the real world. Takeru also warmed up to their new situation. Neither of them had awkward pauses, stiff muscles or second thoughts. Being together was second nature now.

  
It was for that reason new uncomfortable thoughts surfaced in the teen’s mind. During the entire time he spent with Patamon, he never once thought of progressing with his original plans to join the youth division. He mostly avoided Daisuke, though seeing as Takeru never brought the subject up with anyone, it might have been he didn’t yet have another reason to confront him again. He left Takeru alone on the subject of Hikari. Despite being so confrontational, it seemed Takeru’s explanation of their closeness was good enough. At least that much was off his back.

  
“Is there something wrong, Takeru?” Patamon’s question brought him out of his musings. He smiled and shook his head.

  
“I was just wondering what I should do now. Before I met you, I was thinking of joining a program that would train me to eventually fight digimon. Mostly I was thinking I could spent more time with my father and brother. Or at least have something I can talk to them about and relate with.”

  
“You’re not thinking of joining them anymore, right?”

  
“No,” Takeru said after a short pause. “I don’t think I could now. It would feel too much like fighting you.”

  
“I guess you’ll just have to tell your family you won’t do it after all.” Patamon said. He bit into one of the meat buns Takeru brought.

  
“Or you could join us.” A loud crunching sound followed the words. Both Takeru and Patamon whirled around to see a boy Takeru’s age. He was leaning against a tree behind them, backpack hanging off one shoulder, a half-bitten apple in hand.

  
The two quickly stood up, glaring at the newcomer. He had short blond hair and blue eyes, strictly Caucasian features with no hints of Japanese. A foreigner. The boy motioned for them to calm down.

  
“Relax. I’m not going to rat you out. My name’s Willis. You’re… Takeru Takaishi, am I right?”

  
“Yes…” Takeru said, eyes narrowing slightly. “How do you know me?”

  
“I have my ways. The important thing here, though, is that you have gone and befriended a digimon. That’s practically unheard of, even in my circle.”

  
“And just what is your circle?” Patamon asked. Willis shrugged, taking another bite of his apple.

  
“We’re just some people who don’t think the way things are now between humans and digimon is good, and want a more peaceful solution.”

  
Patamon glanced up at Takeru with a confused look on his face. Takeru let out a sigh, his stance loosening a little. “You’re a member of a rebel faction, aren’t you?”

  
Willis grinned. “Bingo! You get the prize.”

  
“Prize?” Patamon asked.

  
“He’s being sarcastic, Patamon.” Takeru said.

  
“Oh, come on now, I am not.” Willis pouted. “It’s just all in good fun. You’re right. I’m a member of a rebel group who goes against the military. In fact, I’m a digimon sympathizer. Like you.”

  
“I wouldn’t… really call myself a digimon sympathizer. Takeru said, glancing down at Patamon. He fidgeted with his bag. “I just want to be friends with Patamon and keep him safe.”

  
Willis frowned and pointed at Takeru. “You befriended a digimon. If you’re caught it doesn’t matter if you’re still loyal to humanity or not. They’ll treat you like you betrayed your own race and you’ll be thrown in jail for war crimes and Patamon will be deleted. You’ll never be able to do anything if that happens, even if you are found innocent despite all the evidence against you. Your family will be stigmatized and your father and brother might lose their jobs. Forget about potentially joining them.”

  
“Yeah, and won’t the exact same thing happen if I joined your group and fought against my family and humanity? That’s what you came here for, isn’t it? To recruit me?” Takeru’s voice was getting more agitated.

  
“At least you’d have been involved in a good cause instead of just sneaking around and hiding Patamon away like a secret pet!”

  
Takeru’s gaze fell to Patamon, a pained expression on his face. Patamon was trapped here whether or not Takeru was friends with him or not. Still, was it right for him to go off with a rebel group like this?

  
“What do you think, Patamon? Should we join this guy? We’ll be fighting against both humans and digimon if we do.” Patamon crossed his chubby little arms in thought.

  
“I do admit I feel guilty just sitting here. I doubt we can really make a difference.” Patamon said. “But I’m not scared of being deleted, Takeru. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  
“Wait, you—“

  
“If you do join us, Patamon will be moved to our hideout. There’s more people than just me, and we have other digimon that work with us. You won’t feel so alone.” Willis offered, his tone more gentle this time around. Patamon looked up to Takeru and nodded.

  
“Let’s do it.” Takeru said. He smiled down at his partner. “It’s better than coming to the gardens every day worrying that I’ll see military vans.”

  
“If you’re sure.” Patamon said. He turned to Willis. “We accept your proposal.”

  
“Great.” Willis smiled. “You won’t regret it.”

  
He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and unzipped it. Inside were two nearly identical rabbit-like creatures, a white and green, and the other brown and pink. The white one groaned and leaned against the stiff backing of the bag.

  
“Willis, can we get some fresh air? We’ve been cooped up in here for a while.”

  
Takeru stared wide eyed at the backpack, and glanced up at Willis. “You just carry digimon around that casually?”

  
“Sure, Terriermon. Can you hand me the smaller backpack in the other compartment? The one for emergencies?”

Terriermon nodded and ran around front of the bag while the brown one hopped out. Patamon flew over to them excitedly, landing in front of the two digimon. Willis turned back to Takeru. “Well, yeah. How else are we supposed to go around together? They’re my partners. I need them around.”

  
“Wow! I didn’t think I’d see another digimon!” Patamon said. “I’m Patamon, who are you?”

  
“I’m Lopmon.” The brown bunny pointed to themselves. “I didn’t think we’d meet another human-digimon duo.”

  
“Yeah, you two’re really steeped in it now.” Terriermon said, trying to balance the backpack as he walked over to Takeru. “I mean, Willis has a hard time keeping us all out of trouble. You should have done the smart thing and walked away.”

  
“Terriermon!”

  
“What? It’s true.”

  
“Things have been getting worse now that the anniversary for the war is coming closer.” Lopmon said. “We’ve been thinking the military has been wanting to increase the force of their attack and pushing the war in their favour.”

  
“Yeah. That’s why we need to get more active more than ever.” Willis said, holding open the bag. Terriermon and Lopmon hopped inside. “We should get going.”

  
Takeru took the bag. “How do you expect Patamon to get past the checkpoints?”

  
“Simple, we use the weak points in the barriers.” Willis said. “Usually we travel outside the barriers. It can be a tight fit, but at least we can bring along our partners. Well, some of us. Some digimon are a little two big. Luckily these two are small enough.” He jutted a thumb at the two rabbits.

  
Takeru unzipped the backpack and Patamon flew inside. “This is a lot roomier than your jacket!”

  
He chuckled and zipped the bag up. “So, Willis, how did you get involved in all this? How did you get to Japan? When did you meet those two digimon?”

  
“You could say I’ve always been involved.” Willis said, zipping up his own pack and walked toward the closest road leading out. “I met Terriermon and Lopmon about eight years ago when the gates in America started opening up. Back then they were just Toddlers. We’d been friends ever since.”

  
“Toddlers?” Takeru asked.

  
“Oh yeah. I keep forgetting humans call their stages something different. You know the digivolution stages as Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion and Ultimate. But that’s not what digimon refer to them as. They’re called Baby, Toddler, Child, Adult and Perfect. Technically the stage is called Baby Two. But that’s a rather awkward thing to say, so I just say Toddler. Kind of like a human life cycle, wouldn’t you say?”

  
“Yeah…” Takeru thought he remembered Patamon saying something about children and adults. He didn’t quite understand what he meant, and simply did a smile and nod sort of thing. The main point had always gotten across, and that was the main thing. This made everything clearer.

  
Willis continued. “You could say I kind of started this group. When the war efforts in America got worse, I started spending more and more time on my own. My mom wouldn’t understand, so I just pretended like I was in camp. Then when I had a girlfriend for a while I made the excuse that she invited me to study abroad in a student exchange program. But really, I broke up with her a long time ago. I came here because I wanted to see the source of where everything happened. See if I could do anything here.”

  
“That explains why you know Japanese.” Takeru said. “So you’re living with someone currently? Or are you a vagabond?”  
Willis laughed. “Vagabond sounds more like it. Though I still keep up the guise of a high school student. My mom would get suspicious if she phoned the school and they didn’t know who I was. I mostly live in the hideout with the others. Rent’s really cheap when you live outside the habitable zones, you know?”

  
“Sounds like you lead a pretty interesting life.” Takeru said.

  
“Fairly, yeah.”

  
Willis led them around the city, keeping inside the barrier as much as possible. It called for a lot of boarding and exiting of public transit, and a lot of footwork. Eventually, they landed in Shinjuku, specifically the area that was mostly abandoned by the city’s protection since the initial digimon attack.

  
Takeru gently set his backpack down and looked around. “This is where you have your hideout?”

  
“Yep. I told you, I wanted to find the source of everything and Shinjuku is it. Come on, the hideout isn’t that far from here.” They passed through Shinjuku Park. Despite being so close to ground zero, it was still pretty intact. In fact, it looked like most of it was still inside a barrier, though on the very outskirts. Willis led them to the edge of the barrier and looked around.

  
“There’s a weak spot in the barrier due to the prevalence of the gate. Once we pass through it’s just a short walk to the building.”

  
Willis walked through without much of a problem, though Takeru hesitated. Still, they’d gone this far. Takeru followed, looking at the surroundings carefully. Unlike the rest of the city, this area was rather beaten up. People still lived here, of course. But the upkeep wasn’t as grand as inside the barriers. The buildings were shabbier and dirty. Occasionally Takeru could see rubble littering the sides of the streets.

  
“What happens to you guys if a digimon attacks the area? I mean, there’s no barrier to protect you.” Takeru asked.

  
“We’ve been working on getting our own barrier online, just for the hideout. Problem is, we’d like to make sure digimon can still pass through it safely when we want them to.” Willis said. He stopped at a rather large old building. It looked like it used to be some sort of business shop. “Here we are.”

  
Takeru stepped inside, unzipping his backpack as soon as the door closed. Patamon flew out. Most of the things from the shop’s previous life had been cleared to allow extra room. Essentials were still kept, such as couches, chairs and tables. Computers littered the area, centring mostly on the back wall desk. The room was empty apart from them. Three entrances connected the building, the middle leading to what was presumably the living quarters of the original inhabitants. The leftmost looked makeshift.

  
“Where are the others?” Patamon asked. Willis sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he went to sit at a table. Terriermon and Lopmon followed.

  
“Actually… a few days before I found you there was a big fight. Nearly everyone was captured and sent to prison. The digimon we were working with mostly fled back to the Digital World.” A familiar voice caused Takeru to turn around. Standing in a doorway to the next room was Taichi, arms folded across his chest. Next to him was a small yellow dinosaur Takeru recognized as an Agumon.

  
“T-Taichi.” Takeru said, surprise in his voice. “So this is the group you’re with.”

  
Taichi grinned, scratching the back of his head. “Yep, this is it. Kind of pathetic, wouldn’t you say?”

  
Takeru sat down opposite Willis, and Taichi took a seat between them. The digimon crowded around the table. Takeru shook his head.

  
“I admit I’m a little disappointed. When Willis offered a group I thought it would be more than the three of us. I was expecting… more.”

  
“Well, there wasn’t a lot of us to begin with. But we definitely did get a big blow against us. I admit I was a little desperate when trying to recruit you. I was hoping I could bring our numbers back up, starting with you.” Willis said. “Kamiya was the one that told me about you in the first place. He said you were a decent guy and I should look into you. I wasn’t really expecting you to befriend Patamon.”

  
“Wait, Kamiya?” Takeru looked over at Taichi. He laughed.

  
“I changed my last name to protect myself. I kept the kanji for ‘kami’ but took out the kanji for ‘hachi,’ replaced it with ‘ya’ and then switched them around so that ‘kami' went first.” Taichi wrote out the kanji for Takeru in the air, so he knew which the older man was talking about.

  
“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to use ‘tani’?” Takeru asked, also writing the symbol in the air. Willis raised an eyebrow at this behaviour.

  
“That’s more typical. But I wanted the symbology of an arrow rather than a valley. Besides, Kamiya was how Willis misread my name when he first met me.” Taichi said with a laugh.

  
Willis looked between the two and growled in frustration. “I have no idea what the heck you two are even talking about. Japanese is confusing.”

  
Takeru gave Willis a sympathetic look, but Taichi only laughed harder, patting Willis generously on the back.  
“Don’t sweat it, Willis. You’ll learn to read Japanese eventually.”

  
“How the heck do you even get ‘ya’ out of hachi and ‘gami’ out of ‘kami’ anyway? This language makes no sense.”  
Takeru turned away from the squabbling rebel members and turned to the yellow digimon. “So, how did you get involved in all of this? You’re Agumon, right?”

  
“That’s right.” Agumon nodded. “Most of the digimon working in this group were actually recruited by Willis. He’s the only one any of us really trusted.”

  
“Why’s that?” Takeru asked.

  
“Patamon, let me show you to your room.” Agumon said, getting down from the chair. Patamon glanced at Takeru before following Agumon. Takeru sighed and got up from his seat.

  
“Thanks for bringing Patamon to a safer home. It’s probably best I get back. I have school tomorrow.” Taichi and Willis stopped their bickering to look at him.

  
“Are you sure?” Taichi asked. Takeru nodded. Taichi stood up as well. “I can walk you to the station. It’s not that far.”  
Takeru and Taichi walked mostly in silence the majority of the way to the Shinjuku station. It felt weird to Takeru, being in this situation. He never thought he’d see Taichi, or that he’d be associated with the people he was. Still, it seemed there was a lot about the rebel groups that Takeru got wrong. It was surprising to find Taichi in this group, but even more surprising that he didn’t go all the way with the ideals.

  
Taichi stopped, folding his arms across his chest. “Mind telling me what’s on your mind, Takeru? You’ve been staring at me for the last eight minutes.”

  
“Oh.” Takeru dipped his head a little in embarrassment. “I guess I was just thinking it was surprising that you’re not that comfortable with digimon despite being with Willis’ rebel group.”

  
Taichi laughed nervously. “Yeah, kind of funny how that works, huh? Yeah, I admit I’m not all that comfortable with the concept of digimon. When Willis came here, he tried his best to get our group together by pairing us with digimon partners, but he’s the only one that is truly comfortable around them. But I’m here because I feel that there really are other ways of sorting the conflict between humans and digimon. Does that make me a hypocrite?”

  
Takeru shook his head. “No. But I do think you’ll be a lot happier and more successful if you and Agumon got along. You’re both here because you both believe in the same thing. I’m sure there’s more similarities you can find between each other than that.”

  
They stepped out of the forest and into a more public area. Taichi rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re right. I was kind of pushing the idea aside. But seeing you with Patamon, that it isn’t just Willis being weird, I think I’ll give it a chance.”  
Takeru smiled. “I’m glad.”

  
They stopped in front of the train station and Taichi turned to face Takeru. “I’m glad you decided to join us. See you around.”

  
Takeru waved goodbye and turned to the train station. With a deep breath, he got his ticket and boarded the train.

School was the one normal thing in his life now, it seemed. It didn’t matter how crazy his life got, this was still a constant. He could focus better now that he knew Patamon was safe. Takeru grabbed his shoes from his locker, having just finished the last class of the day. He was busily chatting with a fellow member of the basketball team when something bumped into his shoulder.

  
Books and papers scattered to the floor, Takeru’s shoes falling with them. A very nervous looking redhead dove to the floor to collect his things.

  
“S-sorry.” He said, eyes darting this way and that in an effort to claim the papers before someone stepped on them. Takeru bent down, picking up his shoes, and the papers underneath. He dusted off the dried dirt knocked off from the impact.

  
“Here you go.” Takeru said, holding out the papers. Glancing down at them, his eyes fell upon what looked like a schematic of some sort of insect digimon. Takeru’s brows furrowed. The other man snatched the papers away and stood up.

  
“Thank you.” He said curtly and walked away.

  
“Man, that guy is really losing it.” One of Takeru's classmates named Saburo said, shaking his head. “That’s an upperclassman, Koushiro Izumi. He’s always been a little eccentric, but he’s been getting worse lately, it seems. Probably stress from final year.”

  
“Yeah… Maybe.” Takeru murmured. He watched as Koushiro slipped out the door.

  
The upperclassman and his papers were still on Takeru’s mind when he arrived in Shinjuku to visit Patamon. Takeru opened the door to see Willis already there, talking with Taichi, who seemed to still have a work uniform on. Agumon, the rabbit digimon and Patamon were also huddled around the table.

  
“Tachikawa always goes on shopping trips with his daughter on Sundays. So it’s logical that then would be the perfect time.” Taichi said, glancing over at Takeru, and did a double-take. “Takeru! You’re really quiet when you want to be.”  
“What’s going on?” Takeru asked, walking over to the table.

  
“We’re discussing a plan on how to infiltrate the military base where they train the junior division. That building houses a lot of military experimental technology for dealing with digimon.” Willis said. “If we can figure out what they’re trying to do and perhaps stop it.”

  
“Wow. Sounds kind of dangerous.” Takeru said. “Have you ever done this before?”

  
“A few times. But we haven’t done much of anything since our friends were taken.” Terriermon said.

  
“We just have to be extra careful now that we don’t have backup.” Lopmon said.

  
“You have that look again.” Patamon said, walking over to Takeru. “Something’s on your mind.”

  
Takeru gave him a weak smile. “Yeah… today an upperclassman’s been acting a little weird. He bumped into me and I saw he had a bunch of papers about digimon. I’m not sure what to make of it.”

  
Taichi and Willis looked at each other. Taichi turned to face Takeru. “It could be that he’s intending to join the military. Is he part of the youth division?”

  
Takeru shook his head. “He doesn’t wear a uniform or anything that shows he is.”

  
“Maybe for now you could keep an eye on him, if it worries you.” Willis suggested. “Though there’s not much we can do if he’s just researching digimon.”

  
“True.” Takeru was silent after that, listening to Willis and Taichi’s plans and making small talk with Patamon. He barely noticed the time until long past sunset. He said his goodbyes and headed to the train station.

  
Walking home from Tokyo Teleport, Takeru was surprised to see Koushiro Izumi across the street, nervously looking around as he walked with purpose to the east. He seemed almost jumpy. Takeru frowned. Maybe if he followed him he could find out what this was all about? He ignored the light and following Koushiro’s path on the opposite side of the street. Koushiro walked all the way to Toritsu Shiokaze Park.

  
He kept to the thick of the brush, making it increasingly difficult for Takeru to keep up without alerting the older teen to his presence. He kept in pace, stepping when Koushiro stepped and kept his feet clear of fallen twigs. He stopped at what looked like a small campsite with a tarp over top. Takeru craned in to see. There was a cage inside the tarp area. Inside, was a digimon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference, Taichi's surname 八神 (Yagami) was changed to 神矢 (Kamiya). Though Takeru asked why 谷 (tani, also read as ya) wasn't used. Willis is confused about the redaku of か (ka) into が (ga) for 'kami' and 'gami' which often happens to the second kanji when two kanji are placed together without hiragana. Willis is also confused about the general on'yomi and kun'yomi readings, and how many readings of kanji with completely different meanings have the same vocal sound. The kanji for eight, 八 (hachi, but can be read as ya) was changed to the kanji for arrow 矢 (ya) when Taichi changed his name. 谷 means valley.


	5. Chapter 5

Takeru's eyes widened. What was going on? Questions raced through his mind, trying to process what was happening. Koushiro was taking something out of his shoulder bag. There looked to be some basic food item, as well as some other instruments. He was obviously still nervous, fumbling clumsily with what looked to be a power adapter.

"What are you doing, Koushiro?" Takeru asked, stepping out of the brush. Koushiro yelped, dropping the adaptor.

"N-Nothing!" He said, swiftly turning around. "I'm not doing anything at all!"

He looked behind him, knowing that it was futile to hide what was going on. His shoulders sagged. With a sigh, Koushiro stood up and stepped aside, allowing Takeru to see the digimon inside the cage. It was a red beetle-type digimon. It looked like Koushiro had monitors set up all around the cage. Takeru looked back at him.

"What's all this for?" He asked.

"It's nothing, really… I'm just studying him." Koushiro said, eyes cast to the ground and off to the side. "I wanted to join the technology department of the military due to their enhanced facilities. But I knew I'd likely be dumped into the Digimon Division to work on new weapons or to study the biology of digimon. So I thought I'd preemptively gain knowledge on digimon to give myself a better chance at getting in."

Takeru bent down to get a better look at the digimon. It wasn't one he was familiar with. The digimon backed away to the very back of the cage, and gave a rather odd growl. Koushiro put his hand on Takeru's shoulder.

"Careful. That digimon is called a Tentomon. They can shoot electricity. I've been handling it with rubber gloves."

"Right… This explains why you were so nervous. I guess you didn't want anyone to know you were dealing with digimon in case anyone got the wrong idea. But why did you have the papers in school then?"

"That was a stupid error on my part. I was impatient so in my spare time I went on the internet and printed out some information that was already published about the insect types. Their chemical make-up is rather fascinating. The data the military has seems to be incomplete, but from what I've researched I was able to gain a little more knowledge about how these things work. It's almost as though they're living creatures."

"You don't think they are?" Takeru asked, brows furrowing. Koushiro gave a small chuckle.

"Of course not. Digimon are pixels and bits of data. It's a mystery how they're able to keep a material form in our world. But I intend to find out why." A worried look came to the redhead's face and he busied himself with fiddling with his instruments. He glanced at Takeu once, then a second time. He groaned a little, mussing his hair in frustration.

"The truth is… I do want to go into the military… But I know that they aren't the most humane to them. I know they aren't living creatures but… I-I just can't do it. I've tried to perform a dissection on another digimon but the screams… they're horrible." He grasped chunks of his hair in his hands and fell to his knees. "I don't know what to do, or what to think anymore."

Takeru backed away a step in surprise. Someone from his school, nearly his age was doing something like that to digimon? Maybe it would be best to give up on him if he was willing to go that far. Koushiro looked up at Takeru. He wasn't sure what kind of expression he had on his face, but Koushiro closed his eyes, dipping his head.

"I wasn't able to do it. The digimon I had before Tentomon escaped. I thought... if I could just get my hands on another one, I could try again. But I've... just been stalling on my research. I feel like such a coward. There are hundreds out there risking their lives every day on the front line, and I'm too squeamish to even do lab work. I'm pathetic."

Takeru's expression softened. Walking over to Koushiro, he bent down. "Maybe you should start thinking of them as alive, then."

"What?" Koushiro said, looking up at the younger boy.

"If they scream, then they obviously feel pain." Takeru said. He looked over to the food Koushiro brought. "You also brought food for Tentomon to eat, right? That means he metabolizes food. Digimon can also feel a wide variety of emotions like happiness, fear and loyalty. So why not classify them as alive?"

Koushiro was silent, digesting all that Takeru said. He watched the senior, and Takeru could have sworn he saw the thoughts going through his mind. Koushiro stared at Takeru, eyes darting over the younger body's face. He looked away and sighed. "I don't know."

Takeru sat down beside Koushiro. He glanced over at Tentomon on occasion, with each time the insect digimon would spark. Takeru chuckled softly at this, though his human companion wasn't as amused. He jumped whenever the sound of electricity was heard.

"Would you please stop looking at him? He's going to electrocute us." Koushiro said. He inched away from the cage.

"He won't if we show him we mean him no harm." Takeru looked back at Tentomon. It sparked again.

"And how do you propose we do that? Why do you think we can just talk to digimon and everything would be alright?"

"Because I've already done it once before." Koushiro stared at the blond like he'd gone crazy. Takeru was still watching Tentomon, who stopped sparking. "Patamon and I are best friends. I'd do anything for him, and while I can't speak for him I'm sure he feels the same way."

Koushiro looked back and forth between the two of them. He turned to fully face Tentomon. "Is it really possible? Could there be digimon that would be willing to get along with humans? A-are – could you be one of those, Tentomon?"

It stayed silent. Takeru undid the locking mechanism for the cage.

"Hard Claw!"

The cage swung open, and Takeru fell backwards. Tentomon flew out of the cage, turning around and hovering in midair. Koushiro stumbled off the floor, staring wide eyed at the digimon. Takeru grunted, rubbing his head and sat up. Koushiro pulled Takeru to his feet, barely avoiding an electrical attack.

"Tentomon, please stop!" Takeru said, his voice shaking a little. He clenched sweaty palms. "I set you free, I mean you no harm!"

The digimon ignored him and instead dive bombed at his head. Takeru ducked, grabbing Koushiro's shirt by the sleeve and ran toward the bushes. Koushiro shoved Takeru away from him.

"Just what the hell were you thinking, letting that thing out of the cage?" He growled. Takeru's head lowered.

"I thought…" Takeru clenched his fists around clumps of grass, allowing his forehead to touch cold ground. He heard a fluttering noise, though figured it was just Tentomon coming back for another round. All of his will to move was gone.

"Hard Claw!"

"Boom Bubble!"

Takeru's head snapped up in time to see Tentomon being hit by a gust of air, pushing him back. Patamon soon came into Takeru's field of vision. Koushiro took this time to run over to his bag of supplies.

"Patamon... how did you – why did you-?"

Patamon smiled. "I had a feeling you'd try and do something tonight. So I asked Willis the quickest way here for me. Turns out I was right."

"I'm calling the closest military base!" Koushiro said, taking out a cellphone. Takeru scrambled to his feet.

"No!" He made a grab for the phone, Koushiro falling back. His hands pressed against Takeru's chest, keeping him from reaching the phone. "Patamon's here now! He'll be killed!"

"He's just a digimon, like Tentomon! You saw what Tentomon did when you showed him kindness!"

Takeru stopped struggling, and sat back.

"Actually..." Both boys turned toward the nasally voice. Tentomon was on the ground, standing beside Patamon. "I thought you were trying to trick me by making up a lie about befriending a digimon. So I attacked thinking I could get away. But Patamon's really here."

Takeru stared at the digimon, hesitant to speak. Patamon stepped toward him. "That's right. I wasn't sure if Tentomon would stop, but I knew I had to protect you. "

A smile crept onto Takeru's face and swept the orange digimon into a hug. "Thank you..."

"Interesting..." Koushiro murmured, watching the two. He slowly set the phone on the ground, and his eyes darted around in thought, before turning to rest on Tentomon. "And what do you make of this new development?"

"I can't deny what I'm seeing with my own eyes." Tentomon said. "So I will trust the blond human. I just want to go home."

"We can get you home." Patamon said. "There's an opening at the base back in Shinjuku."

"An opening to the Digital World?" Koushiro asked. Patamon nodded. "Digimon don't come pouring out?"

"No, actually." Patamon said. "The area it opens up to is kind of remote. There's a village on the other side where Agumon and the others stay. So far I haven't seen any digimon that wasn't part of the group hanging around."

"It might be a good idea if I take you both to Shinjuku. Are you going to go home then, Koushiro?" Takeru took his cell out from his pocket to look at the time.

The older teen scratched his neck. "Ah, well actually, I was wondering if I could come, too? I'm curious about the Digital World."

"That's surprising. I didn't take you for that brave a guy. Willing to actually go into the Digital World and all." Tentomon said.

Koushiro blushed. "You're right. I'm terrified about the concept. But my curiosity is – for lack of a better descriptive – screaming louder. Plus I am fascinated by the concept that humans and digimon can befriend one another. I want to know what that feels like." He turned to Tentomon. "Will you forgive me for what I've done to you?"

Tentomon paused, looking up at the human. "Only on the condition that you never perform another experiment on me ever again."

"Fair enough."

"Come on, Willis is waiting across the bridge." Patamon said, flying toward the water.

"Wait, Patamon. I'm sure that he is but the foot crossing is closed for the night. You and Tentomon will just have to fly over and meet him on your own." Takeru said. Patamon pouted, his body drooping as he hovered there.

"Oh alright. Well, Willis would still like to talk to you tomorrow Takeru. Something about having us do our first mission as part of the group." Patamon said.

Takeru rubbed the back of his neck, wondering if he'd feel sore in the morning from being tossed around. The fact that he had switched sides, so to speak, was still something that hadn't quite sank in. "What's that?"

"Not sure. But he told us to be ready to fight if anything happened."

"Great." Takeru waved his goodbyes to Patamon and waited patiently as Koushiro cleaned up his supplies into his bag. He could still barely see Patamon and Tentomon flying across the water.

"So you're against the military now, are you, Takeru?" Koushiro asked. "Are you with that girl's brother's group?"

Takeru frowned. "You mean Hikari Yagami, right? Yeah, her brother is in that group. But I'm thinking that they're a lot different than what the media depicts them as. I won't know for sure until I see more for myself. I want to see the Digital World, too. Maybe we can find some answers once we see it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Koushiro asked. "You were really reckless letting Tentomon out of his cage like that. Not all digimon are going to be that reasonable, even if they see you working with Patamon. Heck, I was surprised Patamon showing up was enough to calm him down."

Takeru nodded, but stayed silent. Koushiro was right of course. Being with Patamon made him a little too eager. He lost all his fear for digimon; a healthy fear considering what the two groups were going through. It was good Koushiro was beating some sense into him now verbally, though he'd beat himself up mentally over it all night.

"Takeru?"

He snapped out of his thoughts. "S-sorry. Yeah, that was really stupid of me. I guess I kinda forgot about how dangerous they could be. Talking with Patamon humanized him. It took away the memory of being attacked by Dobermon and how scary that was. I guess I kept thinking... 'What if I talked to Dobermon like I talked to Patamon? Would he have stopped too?' And I let myself believe the answer was yes."

"So it wasn't the first time you've had contact with digimon. Apart from Tentomon and the blue dinosaur, I've never come into contact with any digimon. Not directly anyway."

"No... it wasn't." For some reason, he felt those words were true even before his encounter with Patamon and Dobermon. It couldn't have been from Birdramon, could it? It wasn't long before they arrived near their homes. Koushiro parted ways with Takeru and he was left to walk the short trek by himself in thought.

In the end, he didn't get a very good sleep that night, and Takeru woke up rather groggily. Luckily his energy picked up toward the afternoon.

"You're looking livelier now, Takeru!" Hikari said cheerily, taking a bite of rice from her bento box. "Didn't you eat breakfast this morning?"

Takeru smiled. "Yeah, a little. I just didn't get a good sleep last night. Nothing to worry about, Hikari."

She leaned back in her chair. "If that's all. You've seemed so stressed lately, Takeru. I don't want you to get sick."

"Me? Never! I told you, you don't have to worry about me, Hikari. I'll make sure to look after myself. Besides, I'm planning on relaxing this Sunday."

This seemed to satisfy her. "Hey, Takeru, why don't we hang out on Sunday? You've been rushing off after school for almost three weeks. It would be good to hang out again, like when we were at the beach."

His heart fluttered happily. "That sounds great!"

"Good. Because I'd rather see you more often like you actually live here now!" Takeru laughed.

"Oh, come on! That's mean."

"Is not."

"Is too." Takeru reached at her side with his chopsticks, causing Hikari to flinch her body away with an audible squeak. Takeru's cheeks bulged in an attempt to keep his laughter in. It failed miserably and he nearly choked through his laughter.

"It's not that funny!" Hikari whined, her cheeks flushing as she saw a few of their classmates stare at her.

Takeru's good mood stayed well into the afternoon. Koushiro was waiting for him by the gates of the school. His school bag slung over his shoulder. Takeru slowed as he neared and the boys started for Tokyo Teleport.

"You're in a good mood today, Takeru." He said.

"Am I?" Takeru asked. "I made plans to spend tomorrow with Hikari, so why wouldn't I be happy?"

"Oh yeah? That should be nice. I think tomorrow I'll be spending the day in the Digital World. I want to gather as much information about it as I can." He said it lowly, but Takeru still looked around, slightly paranoid. He gave the older teen a lopsided grin.

"You say that so self-assuredly. Are you sure you'll even be able to go in this time without being afraid? I admit I'm a little nervous."

"You're right... Right now my nerves are steel and I hope to keep it that way as long as possible. Don't ruin it."

Takeru giggled. "Okay, I won't."

Though it seemed Koushiro would ruin his own nerves as the train ride went on. A short conversation, and Takeru could hear him muttering possibilities of what the Digital World could have been like, or what could happen to them once they got there.

Willis was waiting for him, leaning against a wall off in the corner. He waved at them and pushed off the wall. "Wow, you made it. I was wondering if you'd chicken out."

"Hilarious." Koushiro said, rolling his eyes. Willis glared at him, then turned his attention to Takeru.

"What the hell, Takeru?" Willis growled through clenched teeth. "You're just bringing along random people to do a little show-and-tell? You think this is a game?"

Takeru backed away, holding his hands up. "No! This is Koushiro, the upperclassman from my school. I told you he was acting weird, didn't I? It's because he had Tentomon. I brought him along because he wanted to see the Digital World."

Willis raised his hand toward Takeru's face. He flinched. "Keep your voice down, idiot. Do you want the whole train station to hear you? How do you know we can even trust this guy? If he's experimenting on digimon, that makes him military."

"He's not. He's about in the same boat as me. What's with you? Why are you acting so paranoid?"

Willis' stiff body relaxed, though he kept glaring at Takeru. "I told you, didn't I? Most of our group was taken away by the military. If Taichi and I go, that's the end of us. The military wins. But fine, I'll let him come. If he turns against us, it will be on your head, Takeru."

He turned from the two and walked away. Takeru glanced at Koushiro before the two followed after. He felt a little bad. The fact that their group used to be larger had completely slipped Takeru's mind. It was so easy to think that this group was recent, or it was solely Taichi and Willis. But their history was a lot more complicated than that. Still, Takeru was sure Willis was overreacting just a little.

"Where's Taichi?" Takeru asked. "Couldn't he make it?"

Willis shook his head. "He's on the other side, helping the others. We're going to join him and our friends."

Willis led them back to Shinjuku and their base. Unlike the first time Takeru entered the base, it was completely empty. Only now did he see how unkempt and dirty it was. Though maybe it happened when he was away. No, he was sure of it. There were footprints, claw marks and fingerprints everywhere. The table Willis and Taichi always used were especially covered, and also had food smears littered about the surface.

Takeru put his hands on his hips. "What happened here?"

"Breaks." Willis said casually. "I took a shower before I came to get you guys, but I was pretty caked, too."

"Is the Digital World that muddy?" Koushiro asked.

"Well... I guess you'll see in a few minutes, won't you?" Willis said. He beckoned with a hand gesture for them to follow him down the flight of stairs, propping the door open with his foot. Reluctantly, the boys followed.

There was a light at the end of the staircase, preventing Takeru from seeing anything past. His breathing hastened as he approached, and he glanced around at Willis and Koushiro. Willis seemed to be the only one who looked perfectly calm. He walked through without any hesitation. Both Takeru and Koushiro stopped. Taking a deep breath, he took a small step, foot just shying from the light. With a frustrated grunt in his throat, he squeezed his eyes shut, jumping through.

His feet landed on solid ground, something Takeru wasn't expecting. His knees buckled as his legs tried to readjust, and he nearly fell over. With a small cry, Takeru flailed until he regained his balance. Standing up straight, he patted himself down. He didn't feel any different.

"Takeru!" Patamon's voice made him look up, and the orange digimon was in the air, flying to meet him. Patamon was also caked with mud.

"Patamon!" He grabbed at the digimon, keeping him at arm's length. "Careful, this is my school uniform."

He looked around. The Digital World was very brown. There were no trees almost as far as the eye could see apart from the occasional strange tropical-looking plant standing in solitude. Everything was drab, not unlike a weathered old painting. The ground was churned and uneven, with paw prints and shoe prints both littering the area, stomping it flat. The occasional pocket of uneven mess looked to be ridden with puddles.

"So this is the Digital World..." Takeru said softly. "It's nothing like what I imagined it would be."

"What, were you expecting paradise?" Taichi asked. Takeru jumped. Patamon flew out of his hands.

"Taichi! You scared me." He nearly placed his hand on his chest, before catching himself and thinking better of it.

"Did you bring the spare clothes like I asked?"

"Yes. I think Koushiro forgot." Takeru said, glancing back at the gate entrance. Koushiro had finally passed through, and was busy scoping out the area.

"I have an extra pair. You two should get dressed and help us." Taichi said, turning back toward the shack in the distance.

"Help with what?" Takeru asked. He stepped carefully after Taichi, trying desperately not to slip in the soft, slippery mud. His shoes sunk in quite a bit. He'd have to clean them completely if he didn't want to get in trouble.

"Isn't it obvious?" Taichi called back. "This place is a barren wasteland. For some reason, nothing will grow here. For the last couple of months Willis, myself and the digimon have been trying to make this place more fertile for the plants in the Digital World. We brought lots of water and made this whole place one big pig pen."

"What in the world for?" Koushiro asked, having finally managed to catch up. The front of his pant leg was covered in mud. "If the soil is barren than it should be remineralized with nutrients for the plants."

"It's hard to do that if you can't put anything into the soil. Plus the Digital World doesn't have any worms or anything. At least not here. I'm not sure that's even how the Digital World works. Either way, a lot of attempts have failed. So we're trying to soften the dirt around here first."

"It's a lot of work!" Patamon said. "There isn't anyone around to help us so it takes a lot longer, too."

"There has to be an easier solution to solving this environmental dilemma than doing labour like this." Koushiro said. He gripped his bag. "When we get over to that building I'd like to bring out my laptop and study more thoroughly."

Taichi raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think you'll find anything out on a dinky little laptop?"

Koushiro glared at him. "It's elementary. What better way to understand a world made of data than through a device designed to sift through data?"

"Touché . We'll leave you to it, then."

Takeru followed Taichi into the old building, and he directed him to a corner of the room closed off with blankets and curtains. It was apparently their change area. Takeru immediately took off his shoes, setting them aside as he stripped off his school uniform and changed into the work clothes. They were nicer than what he'd have preferred to work in for this job. But Taichi's message wasn't exactly clear when it came to what work they'd be doing.

He pulled his shoes back on and exited the room. Koushiro had already set himself up on a table and was furiously typing away on his laptop. Taichi was hovering over him, watching him work. He glanced at Takeru as he approached, turning his head back to the screen. He whistled, impressed.

"This guy really knows how to work these machines. Usually I just gave my dad's a few good whacks." Koushiro's furious typing halted as the teen cringed.

"I'd appreciate it if you gave me some quiet to focus, Mister Yagami." Koushiro said.

Taichi laughed. "Mister? I'm not a mister I'm in high school. Just call me Taichi."

Koushiro stopped and stared at Taichi for a few moments. "...Sure. As long as I can get to work in peace."

"Fine, fine. Come on, Takeru. Time to put you to work." He grabbed Takeru by the shoulders and lead him out the back doors. Willis, along with a small group of other digimon were there, working away at the mud and dirt. Beyond them, it looked as though there were still hard patches, parched and flaked.

There were two types of plant digimon, two dog-like types, and what looked like a satyr. Further out were a pair of rabbit-like digimon and a red mammal of some sort. They all turned to look at Taichi and Takeru as they approached. Takeru smiled feebly.

"These are the Floramon and Palmon that work with us." Taichi said, gesturing to the plant types. "They tell us when the ground is fertile enough for us, and will maintain the flowers and trees. Gazimon over there, and Gabumon and Strabimon are helping dig up the hard dirt to make it easier for us to churn. Elecmon's helping, too."

"There used to be a lot more of us." A Palmon said. "Unfortunately there's been a lot of setbacks that disheartened a lot of our friends. They left for the digimon armies thinking that what we were doing was futile."

"I see." Takeru said, brows furrowing a little. "I'm not sure how much I can help, but I'll try my best."

The group cheered, seeming in brighter spirits as they continued with their work. A small smile stayed on Takeru's face as he took a rake Taichi handed to him and got to work.

The satyr digimon stayed mostly off to the side, watching everyone else work. Occasionally, he'd run off to the other side of the building and come back. Once or twice he touched one of the rakes leaning against the building, and for a short while he'd mess with a small patch of mud. On a whole, he seemed antsy.

"What's up with him?" Takeru asked, propping his rake up and leaned against it. Taichi looked over.

"Oh, Flamon is mostly here to dry up the ground of excess water when we finish. He's a little hyper. So waiting around for his job gets him a little impatient."

"What's the rest of the Digital World like, Taichi? Does it look like this all over the place?"

"No..." Taichi said softly. He continued to rake the mud. His brows furrowed as he looked up at Takeru. "It's a lot worse."

"Takeru! Taichi!" Patamon flew over to him. "Koushiro thinks he's found something."

"Perfect." Willis said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Take a break, everyone."

Takeru turned toward the building, and with one step all friction left his footing. With a cry, he fell back. Willis laughed, holding his hand out to him. Takeru wiped the mud from his face, grumbling.

"A little clumsy, aren't you?" Takeru took his hand and pulled himself up.

"Be quiet." Takeru shook himself of the mud, scraping off globs as he walked into the shack.

"What's going on, Koushiro?" Taichi asked.

"I was able to tap into a network that goes through the entire Digital World. Unfortunately, it's not much. There's a lot of chunks missing. But I think even with all of this missing data, I can still construct a map. That's not all; because I've been able to do this I think I can tap into the very code of this world. It's a long shot, but my hypothesis correlates strongly with the data I've gathered.

"It's amazing. I'm gathering so many facts in such a short period of time. I've made another hypothesis. So far there's only one Theory of the Digital World, and that book is written by Keisuke Taichikawa. It's an agglomeration of all the knowledge people have about digimon and the Digital World. But from the data I've collected, already the algorithms don't match. In fact, it seems like the Digital World itself might be a semi-organic biological phenomena. A second abiogenesis; one from non-carbon life!"

"That's great, Koushiro." Taichi said, leaning a hand down on the table, the other hand against his hip. "Can you say that again in Japanese?"

Koushiro groaned. "I was speaking in layman terms, Taichi!"

"Well your 'layman terms' is still Greek to me!"

"Haven't you at least read Keisuke Tachikawa's Theory of the Digital World?"

"No."

"What about the research papers on digimon biology by Yukio Oikawa and Hiroki Hida?"

"No!"

"Come on! Not even a basic introductory article done by a popular science magazine like AsianScientist?"

"Why would I have?"

Koushiro looked about ready to pull his hair out in frustration.

"Basically he's saying the information Keisuke has on the Digital World is flawed and Koushiro is working on unlocking the secrets of how to manipulate the very fabric of this world." Willis said. He looked indignant. Something about what Koushiro said obviously upset him, though Takeru couldn't figure out what.

"Basically, yeah. It's just a start. I think I'd be a lot farther ahead if I hadn't been so stuck on the concepts that Tachikawa's book had in it. But they made so much sense. It wasn't until I let go of my previous perceptions of what to expect that I started to unlock everything. But it's hard. I keep running into these strange runes. I'm not sure how to decipher them. Literature wasn't my best subject, so it will probably take a while longer."

A map flashed on the screen of Koushiro's laptop, showing the Digital World. More than half of the world was missing, blank spaces where Koushiro's missing data likely would have gone were strewn throughout the map.

"Wow. Most if it isn't even there." Takeru said.

"That's because it isn't." Willis said. "That's what the Digital World actually looks like. I always assumed it was because the world was unfinished, like Tachikawa said in his book. But now that Koushiro is saying that's not the answer, I'm starting to wonder why it is that way."

A blinking red mark appeared on the map. Koushiro highlighted it to try and fix the error. Nothing he tried seemed to work. The door to the shack opened up with a loud bang against the back wall. Terriermon and Lopmon were standing in the doorway, panting heavily.

"A breach!" Lopmon said.

"A digimon broke through to the human world and the barrier over Shibuya!" Terriermon cried.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about not posting this sooner. I've had issues with a form of tendinitis in both hands so I've been healing among other general day to day things. I'll get the other chapters up and should continue to post as I write for NaNo.

“What?” Willis ran over to his partners. “Where? How far away?”

  
“They’re in Shibuya. Ura Harajuku.” Lopmon panted, before falling backward to sit down and catch his breath.

  
“What?” Taichi said, giving Koushiro and Takeru glances. “There’s nothing over there but clothing stores. What would they possibly want over there? Any digimon must be stupid to attack the shopping districts. They’re heavily guarded.”

  
“There’s not much time to think about that right now. We have to get going.” Willis said, standing up after scooping his digimon up in his arms.

  
“Wait a second, you mean you actually go to these fights?” Koushiro asked, incredulously.  
“Of course we do.” Willis said. “We don’t want a fight breaking out between the digimon and the military. If we can convince the digimon to go back to the Digital World before the military gets there, we can avoid a fight.”

  
“Plus a lot of people could get hurt. Digimon aren’t exactly dainty.” Taichi said. “One of our priorities is to make sure the people get out before the military gets there and things get crazy.”  
“Enough talking. Shibuya’s far away from here. It’s at least forty minutes.” Willis said as he ran to a closet and started rummaging through. “Takeru, are you coming?”

  
“Wh-uh, sure?” He glanced at Patamon, who nodded enthusiastically.

  
“Great.” He tossed Takeru a surgical mask. Takeru caught it and looked at it with a raised eyebrow.  
“Are we bosuzoku, now?” He looked at Taichi, who had also been tossed one and was putting it on. He gave Takeru a wry smile.

  
“We might as well be.” Takeru thought about that for a moment before hastily putting on his mask. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea for him to have his face seen.

  
“If we cut through Yoyogi Park we can get there in twenty minutes if we run.” Taichi suggested, turning his attention to Willis. The blond bit his lip.

  
“That will still take a lot of time. I guess we have no choice.”

  
“Hang on just a minute, please.” Koushiro said, holding his hand up and waving it at them. “I think that the red blip on this map might be the breach between the Real and Digital Worlds. It’s closer to us here than it is in our world. If we can get there from here, you can arrive at the scene faster. Ten minutes max.”

  
Both Willis and Taichi ran over to look at the laptop again. “Are you absolutely sure?” The former asked. “We don’t have time to waste on guesses.”

  
“It’s an educated guess, though I think if it is true than this map is a little slow in updating. If I run some diagnostics I can perhaps update it to real time. It’s hard to know how long the breach has been there for.”

  
“We were listening in on the Digimon Sighting Hotline and the first call came in about seven minutes ago now.” Terriermon said.

  
“Four minutes slow. That’s not too bad. It might not be real time exactly, but it will get us closer.” Koushiro mused, his fingers slamming on the keyboard in fast succession. “I’ll work on this. You guys should go.”

  
Willis patted Koushiro’s shoulder before running out of the building, Taichi and Takeru following behind. It took barely any time to get to the site location the red blip indicated. Koushiro’s guess was right, a tear had opened, revealing Shibuya’s shopping district on the other side. Taichi and Willis wasted no time in running in. Takeru hesitated momentarily before following.

  
They came out on the roof of one of the buildings. Below, a crowd of shoppers were slowly leaving the district. At first glance it wouldn’t seem as though anything were wrong, apart from the mildly worried expressions on everyone’s faces. Takeru could hear pieces of the conversations, wondering if the evacuation was legitimate or a false alarm.

  
Looking around, it didn’t seem like there was any digimon in the area. Terriermon and Lopmon were on high alert, their ears perked up as high as they could go. Everyone’s attention turned east as an explosion broke the relative silence.

  
“It’s moved.” Willis said, taking a step in the direction. Terriermon put his paw on Willis’ neck.  
“No! There’s another digimon inside. I can hear screams.”

  
“I can hear them too, Taichi.” Agumon said. “There’s more than one digimon. Should we split up?”  
“Willis, I can stay with Takeru and investigate this digimon here.” Taichi said. Willis nodded. Without another word he ran toward a ladder and he and his partners vanished from sight. Taichi turned to Takeru.

  
“Alright. We’re going to have to get in there somehow without many people seeing our digimon. If there’s no hatch or anything we’ll have to go down the ladder and find a back door or something.”  
“I can fly around the building and find a way in.” Patamon suggested. He rose out of Takeru’s arms.  
“Would that be safe?” Takeru asked. “With all these people expecting to see a digimon it might cause panic. Or someone might alert the military.”

  
“It’s a risk we’ll have to take.” Agumon said. “If a digimon is attacking people below, and no one is running out, that means they blocked the exit somehow.”

  
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon.” Patamon flew away, leaving an antsy Takeru behind.  
“How long before the military gets here, do you think?” Takeru asked.

  
“It’s hard to say. As far as we know there’s only been calls about a single digimon sighting. But if there’s more than one digimon they could be going to where Willis is. What bothers me is why would one digimon be secretive about terrorizing this place while another is noisily making a fuss a few blocks from here?”

  
Patamon returned moments later. “There’s a back door to the building, but I’m not sure if it’s locked or not.”

  
“I can blast my way through.” Agumon said.

  
“Come on, let’s get down there.” Taichi said, pointing to the other building the mall was standing back to back with. He leaped over the divide onto the roof and made his way to the staircase, his digimon and Takeru following closely behind.

  
Agumon stayed behind Taichi as they walked along. It wasn’t a perfect disguise for the digimon, but as long as they kept to the back alley, they’d be less likely to be spotted. After he showed them the entrance, Patamon flew inside Takeru’s jacket. He looked like an odd lump on his chest, but at least he was hidden.

  
Taichi jumped the three steps to the door, and tried it. It jangled noisily, but seemed stubbornly stuck. Agumon patted Taichi, who moved out of the way.

  
“Baby Flame!” Agumon spat out a hot fireball at the doorknob, which heated and eventually melted after a few more encouraging attacks. Taichi kicked the door open, and it banged violently against the wall opposite. He and Agumon ran inside.

  
“What about the door?” Takeru asked fruitlessly as he watched the two disappear. He followed Taichi’s footsteps down the hallways and into an American brand clothing store.

  
At first there seemed to be nothing there. A rustling of a clothing rack told Takeru differently and both boys stiffened. Patamon flew out of Takeru’s jacket and hovered beside his head. A large pink rabbit-like digimon jumped out of the clothing rack, tangled in a small mound of clothes. Two high school girls were on the floor, the brunette wielding the end of a broken rack as a weapon. They looked at Takeru and Taichi, seeing the digimon beside them and screamed.

  
Taichi’s eyes widened as he stared at the girl with the weapon, as though recognizing her. He took a step toward the girls. “Come on, we need to get you out of here.”

  
But the brunette took a swing at him, which Taichi had to duck. “Get away!” She screamed.  
“Dammit, would you rather get attacked by that Bitmon?” Taichi gestured over at the rabbit, who was now free of the clothes it was tangled in. Agumon immediately ran at it, spitting attacks at it. The girls looked at each other, deciding which would be worse. The brunette grabbed Taichi’s outstretched hand, her friend grabbing Takeru’s.

  
Taichi pulled her up just as Agumon was thrown against the wall. Still holding her hand, Taichi ran for the exit, Bitmon bounding behind them.

  
“Ear Lancer!” Bitmon’s ears stretched out toward the brunette, wrapping around her legs like bandages. With a scream, she fell hard on the ground. Takeru skid to a halt, his arm stretching painfully when the girl took a moment to realize he stopped.

  
Taichi turned toward her, now using both hands to pull on the brunette’s hands. He put a foot on Bitmon’s face, trying to pry her out of its grip. “Go!”

  
“But—”

  
“Bitmon’s not after you, now get out of here!” The girl looked at Takeru, unsure what to do. Takeru himself wasn’t sure what was going on, but the girl didn’t seem keen on leaving her friend.  
“Do as he says.” Takeru said. “I can’t help her and protect you at the same time.”

  
Reluctantly, the girl ran down the hall to the exit he and Taichi burst into, screaming to her friend she’d get help. Takeru heard a muttered ‘Great’ coming from Taichi. Takeru ran to the bound girl, who was furiously trying to unwrap the rabbit’s ears from her legs. Takeru bend down, unsure of what to do. He tried helping her get the ears off her legs, but her clawing the area frantically made him change his mind after a smart scratching across his fingers.

  
“Takeru!” Taichi yelled, and Takeru looked over at him, who gestured toward Bitmon’s front paws. Carrots appeared, grasped tightly in Bitmon’s grasp.

  
“Carrot bomb!” Acting on impulse, Takeru kicked at its paws, sending one of the carrots underneath Bitmon. The bomb exploded underneath Bitmon, and the digimon was sent flying into the air. It was enough to pull the girl loose, and both she and Taichi scrambled to their feet.

  
Agumon had now recovered and joined Patamon in attacking Bitmon, who was doing its best to try and get at the girl again. Taichi kept her behind him, still grasping onto her wrist firmly. He turned and ran, keeping her in front of him as two more carrot bombs formed in Bitmon’s paws.

  
Takeru shielded himself, Taichi wrapping his arms around the girl, shielding her from the blast. The two of them were thrown a few metres away. Getting up, Takeru made a run toward them, but Bitmon’s ears wrapped around his waist, hoisting him into the air. Another bomb appeared as the girl managed to slip out from underneath Taichi, who lay motionless on the floor. It was thrown to her left, and exploded. With a cry, she was thrown again to smack hard against a wall. She crumpled to the floor.

  
Agumon ran to Taichi, attempting to rouse him. Takeru started to struggle, wildly wriggling and moving anything he could to get the rabbit to let him go. He felt his foot connect with Bitmon’s face, and the rabbit digimon dropped him. Without fear of hurting Takeru, Patamon continued his onslaught of attacks.

  
Taichi got up slowly, holding his head in his hand. He looked over at the unconscious girl, and with Agumon’s help, made his way over to her. Takeru followed.

  
“We have to get her out of here.” Taichi said. “Agumon, help Patamon distract Bitmon. Follow after us when we’re out. Takeru, help me pack her.”

  
Takeru walked over to Taichi, who was trying to figure out how to best pick her up. She didn’t look injured apart from hitting her head. Taichi was still gentle regardless, sliding his hands underneath her shoulders and easing them down her back to wedge between her and the floor. Hesitantly, Takeru grabbed her legs just above her skirt line, and after Taichi began to lift, placed a hand under her backside.

  
Carrying her like this was awkward. Apart from the dead weight, Taichi seemed to have a dubious grip at best, his hands underneath her arms and around her stomach. His grip was slipping slowly upward, and a good deal of her midriff was showing.

  
“Gah, this isn’t working.” Taichi groaned, bending down and trying to adjust himself. Takeru stopped, waiting anxiously for Taichi. He looked behind him. Agumon and Patamon seemed to be containing Bitmon, if only just. The small space was keeping Bitmon confined, though it also meant Patamon had barely anywhere to go out of reach of the digimon’s long ears. Agumon would fire an attack every time it reached for him, and his larger size at least was enough to keep it successfully getting past and reaching for its target.

  
A tug told Takeru that Taichi was ready, and they continued down the hallway to their escape route. The exit was in sight, though to Takeru’s horror, a familiar face was standing in the way.

  
Wearing full military garb, Daisuke stood in the doorway with two others flanking each side. Taichi swore as he looked over his shoulder, stopping and readjusting his grip on the girl. Immediately upon seeing the digimon past Taichi and Takeru, Daisuke and the older boy to his right drew what looked like guns from their holsters. The younger boy took out a small communication device and started shouting for some backup.

  
Takeru looked around, wondering if there was a second way out. Bitmon, seeing the military had arrived, lunged past Taichi and Takeru, opting to deal with them before going after the girl. Daisuke pulled the trigger, and a large needle flew at Bitmon. It lowered its head, letting the needle bounce off its armour before leaping again.

  
“Ear lancer!” Daisuke and the older boy dove out of the way. Daisuke looked up at the younger one, propping himself up with an arm, swinging the other at him.

  
“Iori, get out of here!”

  
“But what about-“

  
“You’re not authorized for combat!” The other boy shouted as he took a shot of his own. This time the tranquilizer dart hit a fleshier mark. Iori nodded and bolted from the scene. Bitmon shook the needle out before too much of the concoction could feed into its system. But it was already starting to take its toll, as Bitmon stumbled clumsily to a bipedal stance for a moment before dropping to all fours again and opted to simply body slam Daisuke and the other boy.

  
“Come on!” Taichi said, taking this opportunity to run past Bitmon and the boys. Takeru looked back. Patamon was flying close behind, and landed on his shoulder, clinging to his jacket. Agumon was a little further behind. Daisuke recovered from Bitmon’s attack just in time to grab his gun and take aim at Agumon.

  
“Baby Flame!” Agumon aimed his breath attack just above Daisuke’s head, and he ducked to avoid it, missing his shot. He followed the rest of them out the doors and up the stairs to the rooftop, Patamon spitting out air shots for good measure. Neither Takeru nor Taichi stopped until they were well inside the Digital World, setting the girl down gingerly before slumping to the ground, panting heavily.

  
“Wow… I thought we’d be caught for sure.” Takeru said when he finally managed to catch his breath. He looked down at the still unconscious girl. “So… who is she, anyway? Why was Bitmon so keen on getting her? You seem to know her.”

  
Taichi looked down at her, wiping the sweat off his brow and he pulled down his mask. “That’s Mimi Tachikawa. She’s Keisuke Tachikawa’s daughter. Eighteen years old, shopaholic, uninvolved in the war. She goes to a private girl’s school, Toyo Eiwa. My only guess why she was targeted because of who her daddy is.”

  
“Snob school’s perfect for a spoiled girl like that.” Willis said, causing Takeru to whirl behind him, hand raised to his chest. Terriermon and Lopmon were absent. “I take it you want to use her somehow? Leverage? You know that’s going to be risky, Taichi.”

  
“I take risks every day. I don’t see what’s different about this one.” Taichi said, shrugging. “How did your end go?”

  
Willis shook his head solemnly. “I couldn’t save Sepikmon. It was like he was a kamikaze scapegoat. He just didn’t care.”

  
Taichi took his head. “We should probably get Her Highness to the shack and set her up for when she wakes. Let’s try and get her up on piggyback because dragging her around like a dead sack is hard.”

  
Willis and Takeru hoisted Mimi onto Taichi’s back with moderate difficulty, and they slowly made their way to the shack where Koushiro was. Willis jogged there first, opening the door and running about to get a makeshift bed ready for Mimi, Takeru following behind.

  
Koushiro turned around to glance at them both. “Back already? How did it go?”

  
His question was left unanswered as they set up the bed, though moments later Taichi entered, Agumon helping to support Mimi and prevent her falling backward. He watched slack-jawed as the three of them set her down on the bed.

  
“So, you’re kidnappers now, too? What in the world happened out there?” Koushiro asked.  
“Mimi Tachikawa. Digimon tried to kidnap her.” Willis said, not bothering to look at Koushiro. “Hopefully we can use her to our advantage when she wakes up.”

  
“Yeah but… she’s a person, not a chess piece.” Takeru said, finally expressing his dissatisfaction with how they were talking about her. “If we treat her as nothing more than a hostage, we’ll be no better than the digimon who were trying to kidnap her in the first place.”

  
“I agree with Takeru.” Koushiro said. “She has her own autonomy to listen to us. Hopefully she’ll be a reasonable girl.”

  
“Yeah, hopefully.” Taichi said. “We won’t know until she wakes up.”

  
“Wishful thinking.” Willis muttered, but stalked off anyway.

  
“Not a very optimistic guy, is he?” Koushiro said, turning back around to continue typing on his laptop.

  
“He’s just wary.” Taichi said. “We’ve had a lot of losses in a short period of time. He’ll need time to get used to you all. It took him three days convincing just to follow Takeru around.”

  
“Everything is moving very fast.” Takeru agreed. “It’s been a struggle to get me to adjust, too.  
Mimi stirred about an hour later, her eyes opening slowly. She sat up with a groan and held her head in her hands. What followed after a brief scan of the scene around her was an ear piercing scream that made all three boys jump. Mimi stumbled out of the makeshift bed, kicking the blankets and flailing her appendages all over.

  
Takeru and Taichi, putting their masks back on, hesitantly walked over and attempted to calm her down. Mimi wasn’t having any of it though, and lashed out at either of them if they attempted to get within kicking distance.

  
“Please, calm down.” Takeru said, holding his hands up as he bent down, trying to show her that he meant no harm.

  
“Get away from me!” Mimi screeched, curling up into a ball against the wall of the shack. “Who are you? What do you want from me?” Though before either of them could answer, Mimi gasped, and pointed at them. “You’re those insane boys, aren’t you? Taichi Yagami and Wally McCaffrey, right?”  
“That’s Willis, not Wally.” Taichi said, a worried frown spreading across his face. “And I’m Kamiya, not Yagami.

  
“Uh, I’m actually not Willis, either.” Takeru said with mild annoyance. “But I guess all blonds must be the same foreigner.”

  
That seemed to stop Mimi for a moment, as she stood and looked at Takeru. Her face twisted, as though the thought of apologizing to her kidnapper was extremely unpleasant. But he heard a muttered ‘sorry’ anyhow.

  
“B-But I heard that the blond boy with Kamiya was a boy named Willis!” Mimi said, regaining her angry composure.

  
“He is, but I’m not him.” Takeru said.

  
“We’re growing in numbers.” Taichi said. “Now please calm down, you hit your head.”

  
“I didn’t hit my head!” Mimi growled. “I was thrown against the wall by that monster of yours!”

  
“Fine, whatever. Look, we aren’t in league with that digimon.” Taichi said shortly, an exasperated sigh escaping his lips.

  
“And how am I supposed to know that?” Mimi asked, folding her arms across her chest. “I don’t trust people who wear masks like criminals!”

  
Takeru and Taichi looked at each other. “We wear these masks to protect our identity. Though I guess since you already know my name…” Taichi removed his mask. Mimi’s eyes widened.

  
“You’re so young…”

  
“You thought I’d be older?”

  
“Well, yeah…”

  
Taichi nudged shoulders with Takeru. “This guy here is younger than you are, so please excuse him if he keeps his mask on. He’s just a kid.”

  
“You’re recruiting kids into your criminal organization?” Mimi yelled, causing Taichi to lean back in surprise.

  
“N-no! Please, let us explain…” Takeru said, holding a hand out to her. “Well, sort of… I mean, there wasn’t anyone else Patamon and I could trust other than these guys, so there wasn’t much of a choice.”

  
“Patamon?” Mimi blinked. Upon mention of his name, Patamon flew from the desk where Koushiro was still busily typing and landed on Takeru’s shoulder. Mimi blanched, backing once again into her corner.

  
“It’s one of those monsters!”

  
“He’s not going to hurt you!” Takeru said, raising his voice, though it didn’t seem like Mimi was hearing him now. She was sobbing loudly into her hands. Taichi held back, an uncomfortable look spread on his face like he was unsure how to proceed.

  
“Please. I just want to go home. Why did you bring me here?” Takeru inched forward cautiously, a hand held out to her. He touched her shaking shoulder, and despite a small flinch, proceeded to gently wrap his arms around her shoulders awkwardly.

  
“I’m sorry we scared you. But considering the circumstances, it wasn’t a good idea to leave you there. That digimon would have gotten you for sure and then you’d have been in real trouble.”Takeru said softly. “We were only thinking of your safety, we swear.”

  
“But you have one of them with you.” Mimi choked, her voice wracked with sobs.

  
“Patamon and Agumon won’t hurt you. They’re our friends.”

  
Mimi turned her head up, looking over her fingers. “Friends? How is that possible?”

  
“W-well, at least for Patamon and me… we talked to each other.”

  
“They talk?”

  
“Yeah! Yeah they do!” Takeru said, a wide smile crossing his lips. He turned to glance at Patamon.

  
“And bleed.” Patamon said, holding his wing out on display. There was still the scar from when his wing was trapped when they first met. “If Takeru hadn’t found me when he did, I’d have been in big trouble. He saved my life.”

  
“And Patamon saved mine. We’ve been friends ever since.”

  
Mimi put her hands into her lap now, though she was still stiff and stared unblinkingly at Patamon. Takeru pulled away from her now, giving her some space. A hand was placed on Takeru’s unoccupied shoulder, and Takeru saw an impressed grin on Taichi’s face.

  
“That’s essentially what we are, Miss Tachikawa.” Taichi said. “We’re just a group of kids who found a way to co-exist with digimon. We want to find an alternative to all the fighting. Like what we’re doing outside for instance.”

  
Mimi frowned, seeming like she wasn’t all that keen on coming out from her little corner.

  
“Of course, you don’t have to see.” Taichi said hastily. “It’s only if you want to.”

  
Takeru stood up, and nodded. He and Taichi gave Mimi more space, walking toward the door that led to their project. Mimi contemplated for a moment, before slowly standing up. She dusted off her skirt, adjusting it before following them. She glanced at Koushiro as she passed, as if only just noticing his presence. Koushiro turned his head away, stopping his typing as he did so. Mimi turned her gaze away, and continued to the door. She stopped a ways away from them still.

  
Taichi opened the door and stepped away, allowing her to get closer if she wanted. Takeru did the same. Mimi glanced at them before stepping closer and peering out the door.

  
Flamon had apparently gotten bored enough while they weren’t out there and proceeded to dry up the excess water from select areas. From what was already dried, the Floramon and Palmon had started their attempts to plant the trees and flowers.

  
With a frown, Mimi stepped back. “I don’t understand. What are they doing?”

  
“Gardening.” Koushiro’s voice made them all turn back toward the desk in the middle of the shack. “For some reason the Digital World has mostly disappeared. Your father wrote in his thesis that he hypothesized that it was unfinished, but I am gathering mounting evidence that the contrary might be true. It could be that the Digital World is disappearing and what’s left of it is mostly barren and kind of inhospitable and that is driving the digimon to seek out more stable land. Obviously that comes into conflict with us.”

  
Mimi’s gaze fell, processing the new information. She looked back outside. “Can I… talk to them?”  
Surprised, but pleased, Taichi nodded. “Yeah, if you want to feel free to go out. Here, I’ll get you some mud boots.” He walked over to the closet.

  
“They won’t attack me, right? If I go out there…” Mimi looked at Takeru, who shook his head.  
“No. I promise you they won’t. Even if there’s a small chance they would, we’ll make sure you won’t get hurt.”

  
“I want to go home after this. You guys will let me go, won’t you?”

  
“Of course.” Taichi said, returning with some boots. Mimi put them on, and slowly made her way outside. As she neared the flower planting digimon, she kept looking back at the shack, as though making sure they were still watching out for her. Takeru leaned against the door, and waved at her.  
“That was impressive, Takeru.” Taichi said. “I’m surprised she is taking all of this so well.”

  
“We had to show her we meant no harm. You will be letting her go after this, right Taichi? I don’t want to be made into a liar.”

  
“Well, we have to now.” Koushiro said. “You built her trust up on the promise she wasn’t being held prisoner or anything. If you didn’t let her go now, that would destroy everything that’s happened up to now, and it would be virtually impossible to repair that.”

  
“No, we’re letting her go.” Taichi said. “It wasn’t my intention to bring anyone else here. But if we let her go with suggestions to her father that we’re not bad, or to change some of his policies, we could be in a better position in the future.”

  
He watched Mimi as she awkwardly spoke to the digimon, bending down after a while, and leaning forward to look at the flowers.

  
“Besides, I have someone I need to meet soon.”

  
Mimi returned half an hour later at Taichi’s beckoning. She waved goodbye to the digimon before walking back to the shack. Her face was flushed, and she was breathing a little heavily. Takeru could even see she was shaking a little. She took off the boots hastily for Taichi to put away, which he did promptly.

  
“That was something…” Mimi said, placing a hand on her chest. “I was actually having a conversation with a monster; a digimon.”

  
Takeru smiled. “Wild, isn’t it? We’re going to be letting you go soon. But Taichi tells me that to protect our hideout, we have to blindfold you until we get to the station. Is that alright?”  
Mimi’s smile faded, but before she could reply, Taichi returned with the blindfold.

  
“Sorry, but it isn’t much of an option. Not for Keisuke Tachikawa’s daughter.” He gave her an apologetic look. Mimi huffed, but stood still and closed her eyes. Taichi wrapped the blindfold around her eyes, making sure it was tightly secure. He and Takeru then led her out to the hideout in the Real World.

  
Taichi twirled her in place a few times to confuse her before the two of them proceeded to take her to Shinjuku Station. When they were nearly there, he twirled her again before taking the blindfold off.

  
“There. Just as promised.” Taichi said, grinning at her.

  
“Thank you…” Mimi said, unsure of really what to do. She settled for a very small bow before running into the station. Takeru sighed, taking off his mask.

  
“I should probably talk to Yamato. I’ll see you around.” Takeru was waved off as he followed Mimi into the station. Taichi waited a little bit before getting his own ticket, taking his way to Nerima. He kept to the crowded streets and ducked into alleys when he could until finally coming to the dark alleyway where he’d be meeting her.

  
He smiled when he saw her there, early as usual. She was in a casual military jacket with civilian clothes underneath. She turned when she heard him approach. A frown played on her face.  
“We need to stop meeting like this, Taichi…I can’t keep doing this.”

  
“Hello, Sora.”


	7. Chapter 7

Taichi gave Sora an apologetic grin. It did nothing to change the look on the brunette's face. His smile faltered, and he felt his hand raise to scratch the back of his neck. His eyes darted around the alleyway, eventually forcing his gaze back to Sora despite a growing feeling of uncertainty.

"I'm sorry, Sora. We had a bit of an issue that needed to be taken care of. I couldn't get here any faster."

Sora sighed, closing her eyes. Her arms folded across her chest and she gripped her sleeves tightly.

"It's not that you're always late, Taichi." Sora said, her voice barely audible as she carefully watched some people walk by the alleyway. "You're a criminal. You're working to hinder the military and their protection of everyone from digimon. I can't keep doing this now that I'm joining them."

Taichi's smile faded completely now, taking a step toward her. Sora took a small step away from him. He sighed, dropping his hands, which were stretched out for her.

"Sora... I can't just stand by and do nothing. I don't think that fighting digimon is the right way to go about it. You know I can't stand by and do nothing."

"Why not?" Sora looked up, her eyes searching his face, a desperate look spread across her face. "Why do you always have to be the one to go out there and do something? Why can't you just live a regular life and let someone else do something instead of you?"

Taichi watched her, trying to decide how to best respond. He could see Sora was upset, and despite his weariness, he knew he couldn't just brush it aside, no matter how much he wanted to.

"Who else will?" He said. "That other guy doesn't exist right now, Sora. It's just me and Willis and we're so small. But we're standing up for what we believe in. We aren't just taking everything at face value and swallowing whatever the military or Keisuke Tachikawa says."

"You wouldn't be doing this if that guy hadn't come here!" Sora growled bitterly, her hand flying to her face and she angrily wiped at her eyes. "Everything was fine until he showed up. Now you're... you can never live a normal life. You'll be put in jail if they catch you, Taichi."

He frowned. "Hey now, don't go blaming this on Willis. I have my own mind. He didn't just come to Japan and corrupt me, I thought the military was wrong before he showed up. I just didn't have any evidence there was another way until then!"

"What evidence!" Sora said, her voice raising. She leaned further back into the shadows of the alley.

"I've seen it with my own eyes! Humans and digimon getting along. They can work together peacefully." He said. Sora shook her head.

"Some kid manages to raise a baby digimon as a pet. That's all that is. Tachikawa said something like that could be possible. It's not much different than finding a baby wild animal and raising it. But they are still dangerous Taichi. You and that guy... are just deluding yourselves. Instead of going to Tachikawa and revealing you have these digimon so they could be used to help, you fell into some kind of fantasy world where everything can be easily solved with friendship or something."

"Maybe I am a little optimistic." Taichi said softly. Inside, he felt a growing sense of frustration. It was all he could do to keep from lashing out at Sora. He knew she was wrong, but there didn't seem to be any way of convincing her. He didn't want to tell her about Takeru, either. "But I can't just sit back and stand idly by when I know things are wrong. For you to stand there telling me to sit at home while you wear that jacket makes you a hypocrite."

Sora looked down at her military jacket and tightened her grip on it. Taichi continued.

"We've been friends for a long time now, Sora. I've known you pretty much my whole life."

She looked up at him. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Taichi scratched the back of his head. "Nothing, really. It's just... we've been through a lot together, haven't we? We've changed a lot since we were kids."

Sora's shoulders laxed and her eyes found their way to the ground. "Yeah, we have. Things aren't as simple as they were back then, Taichi. You can't act like they are."

"I know that. I'm just saying that we have a lot of history together. There was a time we were inseparable."

She nodded. "We aren't the same as we were back then."

"Yeah. It's amazing that even though we're completely different people, we still managed to stick together, don't you think?" He asked. Sora nodded again. "We stuck by each other, and we supported each other even when we started gaining different interests."

Taichi heard a sniff and he looked up to see Sora was tearing up. He closed the distance between them, gently placing his hands on her shoulders, thumb rubbing them in an attempt to be reassuring. This time, Sora didn't back away.

"We're just going through more changes. But we're still friends, right? We have all that history, and a lot of history to still make. You trust me on that, right?"

Sora's head bowed down, and Taichi held his breath as he waited for her answer. She looked up at him. His smile faultered and his grip on her shoulders tensed.

"I'm saying we can still get through this and remain friends even if right now we're doing different things. But we still need to trust each other. I need you to trust me, Sora. I'm not deluded. We have other options than annihilating the digimon."

Sora stepped out of Taichi's grip, tears rolling down her face. "I'm sorry, Taichi. I can't trust anything I can't see for myself. I can't believe in something like that."

She quickly turned from him and hurried out of the alleyway, leaving Taichi there. He lingered, his arms dropping to his sides and his head drooped. Taking a step, he leaned his head against the wall of the building, closing his eyes to the stinging tears.

Sora walked aimlessly around the city in the vague direction of the nearby facility where she worked. She had spent the train ride drying her tears, but this walk was more to calm the redness and to help calm her down. She hadn't quite expected to end things with Taichi like that. While they had been friends for years, she couldn't see how they could survive something like this.

Yet, even after she said those things she found herself unsure. Perhaps it was because they were friends, some fleeting hope that maybe Taichi was right, or maybe just some part of her was foolish enough to believe in his childishly optimistic outlook.

Eventually she arrived at the building, convinced her face looked at least presentable. However, she didn't feel any better, and in fact felt like she was about to burst into another crying fit at any moment. She paced the building, an underlying stress filling her as she struggled to start her work. They had a new digimon captured that was ready for basic experimentation. She couldn't be in this state. She needed to pay attention.

Opening the door to the laboratory, she noticed it was mostly empty. She had arrived two hours early. Of course. Her shift didn't start until then, and the intervening time before that was supposed to be with Taichi. No matter. She'd start early and drown out her feelings in her work.

Sora paced uncomfortably around, with only the echoes of her footsteps for company. It was quiet, way too quiet for her liking. She'd find no solace in the solitude of her own thoughts. She couldn't trust her thoughts right now. The digimon they had in captivity watched her as she paced, having nothing much else to do in the small prison.

She hadn't been there when this digimon was captured, but she heard that it used to be bigger. Now, it was just a small pink bird-like creature, just barely leg-height. Sora glanced at the digimon occasionally, unable to ignore it. She wanted to. This creature was nothing but a painful reminder right now, and that was no help.

Even if she tried to ignore it, she knew it was inevitable. She whirled around and bent down quick enough to make the small bird jump.

"He's wrong." Sora told the monster. "Isn't he? Digimon are nothing but invading beasts that want to kill us."

The digimon cocked its head to the side, and didn't speak. Sora knew they were capable of speech. She didn't know if having it talk would be more comforting than the silence or more unnerving that a non-human creature used a human voice. But talking out her problems and frustrations to another being helped, even if it was to a monster.

"If a digimon is working with a human voluntarily, they must be brainwashing them, or lying to gain their trust or something." Sora continued, trying desperately to rationalize to herself why it would be the case. What if there really was a digimon that sided with humans? If there was such a creature, it would likely only be because it was something like the digimon Taichi claimed Willis had. They were pets. All they knew was a life with humans, so it would be natural they'd trust a human. But digimon were said to be intelligent.

If a digimon like that rationalized that being with their own kind was better, or that seeing their fellow digimon being slaughtered meant they could be next they could easily turn on their human owners. Sora didn't think she could bear it if she saw Taichi's picture on the news with the headline that he had been killed. Or worse, if she heard it at work.

Her jaw clenched and she felt tears stinging at her eyes. Sora lowered her head, squeezing her eyes shut and quickly wiped at her face. She stood up, still drying her eyes and went to gather the papers she left in her drawer.

Takeru's heart was pounding in his chest. He knew he wanted to talk to his brother, but had no idea how he would start the conversation. He had to try. It wouldn't be a good idea for him to ignore his family for too long on the subject. The last time he talked to his father and Yamato about digimon he had been considering joining the army. That seemed like a long time ago, now. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Things had changed so much since then. Thinking back on it now as he rode the train back to Odaiba, he realized how complicated his mindset had become after such a drastic encounter. It had been so simple. He was going to join the army, protect the people he cared about and bond with his family. But that wasn't possible anymore.

Takeru felt a tightness in his chest that he tried to ignore. But it was persistently being stubborn. How would they react when he told them he was going to quit the pursuit of a military career?

He already had his excuse. He was thinking of mom. If Takeru joined the army and began to fight, there was the possibility she'd lose all three of them. He couldn't do that to her. She'd be devastated. While that would be true, and a valid concern even if he hadn't met Patamon, the fact that he was resisting against the army and pretty much everything humanity was striving for these days wasn't much better.

Takeru felt sick, and a growing sense of dread as he got off the train and slowly made his way toward his father's apartments. The feeling didn't go away by the time he reached their front door. Standing there for a few minutes, Takeru breathed, trying to regain his composure.

Yamato answered. His eyebrows raised and a small smile adorned his lips.

"Hey. Didn't think I'd see you today." He said, his tone light.

"Yeah, I've been busy." Takeru mumbled, still not feeling he fully calmed himself, or perhaps he just regained his anxieties all over again upon seeing his brother's face. "Is dad home?"

"No, he's still at work. He'll probably not be in until late." Yamato moved from the door, inviting Takeru in.

"Oh." Takeru accepted the invitation and stepped inside, taking off his shoes. He didn't know whether or not he felt better or worse about this. For now at least he'd only have Yamato to worry about, and he wouldn't be double-teamed with aggressive questioning.

"So how's school?" Yamato asked. "It's been a while since you moved. I bet things have settled now."

"Yeah, I've made a few friends. I joined the basketball team." Takeru said. He followed Yamato into the living room, taking a seat on the couch. He didn't really want to talk about insignificant things. It only served to fuel his nervousness. Takeru fidgeted in his seat. Yamato didn't seem to notice.

"That's good. I've been busy, too. Military training is hard. But it's satisfying. Hopefully they won't go too hard on you when you start." Takeru straightened when the opening was presented to him.

"About that, Yamato..." Takeru said quickly, trailing off as he waited for his brother to pay attention. Yamato looked at him, leaning back into the reclining chair on the opposite side of the room. "I'm not sure about joining the military after all. I am just not sure I'm cut out for it."

"What do you mean?" Yamato asked, his brows furrowing. "Takeru, you're a really athletic guy. You can take the training they throw at you. Don't worry about it."

Takeru shook his head, "It's not that. I am not sure I can kill digimon. Besides, I have to think about mom, she's --"

"You don't think you can kill digimon?" Yamato interrupted. "What does that even mean?

"It means I don't think I can actually kill a digimon directly or indirectly with my own hands." Takeru said, trying to keep his voice calm. He wouldn't know the circumstances of the digimon's appearance in the real world if he were with the military, and he wouldn't be given any opportunity to find out. It was more dangerous.

Yamato gave a long, drawn out sigh. He brushed his fingers through his hair, shaking his head. "I don't understand what's gotten into you, but you shouldn't just quit something so easily like that for something that trivial."

Takeru's face twitched involuntarily, but he kept silent, hoping his brother didn't notice. "What do you mean, trivial?"

"There's other jobs you can do in the military. But even as it stands now, you won't be on any kind of front lines as a trainee." Yamato said. Takeru glared at him, unsure if Yamato was giving him a blatant lie or if he was just ignorant.

"What about Daisuke Motomiya going into combat with a hostile digimon just to-the other day?"

Yamato's brows raised, and he gave Takeru a confused look. "Who now?"

"Er, my classmate." Takeru said hastily. "He is always bragging in class that he's in the junior division. He was bragging just the other day about going into direct combat with a digimon." At least, Takeru was sure that was what Daisuke was going to do.

"He must be exaggerating, then. They wouldn't send a kid after a digimon."

"Well, I'm not sure if they did or not. But he said he battled with a digimon. I don't want to call my classmate a liar." Even if he was telling the truth, Takeru wouldn't go that far. Daisuke being there at the mall proved to be useful in hindsight, both in helping get Mimi Tachikawa out, and keeping from an even bigger lie to his brother than he was already giving. At least their stories would match up. Takeru had to be careful to keep any details out that he shouldn't know. Nothing to suggest he was in the mall at the time.

Yamato's eyes narrowed, glancing down to the floor in thought. "What kind of digimon was it? I know they let them practice if it's a low-level digimon."

"It was a rabbit, I think." Takeru instantly regretted the decision to answer with the way Yamato's eyes snapped back up to Takeru's, boring into him.

"A rabbit? Did he describe it?"

"It's not--" Takeru quickly adjusted his words awkwardly. "clear in my mind what he said. I think he said it was something like, red or maybe pink."

"Pink?" Yamato leaned forward. "Pink and what?"

"...White?"

Takeru was stiff in his hair, watching Yamato carefully. He seemed to have been searching for something with those questions. Had he unintentionally given something away?

"Did he say what level it was?" Yamato asked after a heavy pause.

"Champion, definitely." Takeru said.

"I see. Well, that's a really scary situation your classmate was in. I might have to ask dad about something like that."

"I take it he's working late?"

"Didn't I say earlier that he was?"

"Right, right, sorry!" Takeru nodded with a nervous laugh, and took a dry gulp to ease the tension in his throat. "I guess I'll have to see him another day, when he's less busy."

"Oh, are you leaving?" Yamato stood from his chair.

"Y-yeah, I probably should get going." Takeru said, standing up as well. "I have homework to start on."

"Probably a good idea." Yamato said. He gave Takeru a smile. "It was good to see you again, Takeru."

"Yeah, you too." Takeru slowly made his way to the door, his brother following behind him. Takeru looked back at Yamato after slipping his shoes on. "Um, Yamato, what would you be doing if you didn't join the military?"

"Hmm?" Yamato blinked. "I don't know. I always wanted to start a band. Protecting the people I cared about seemed much more important than what I wanted to do."

"Right." Takeru looked back in front of him, staring at the bottom of the doorway. "So, you'll never quit and pursue that goal?"

"Maybe someday. Maybe I'll stay and work in the military. I am really good at engineering, turns out."

Takeru opened the door. "I think... it would be nice if you started that band."

Before Yamato could respond, Takeru slipped through the door with a quick goodbye and started on his way back home. He stopped in the kitchen for a glass of water before heading to his room, downing it in one go and flopped face first on the bed.

That conversation took more out of him than he thought. He didn't know what it would be like to try and talk to his father about it, and who knew what the conversation would turn out to be if Yamato talked to him about what they discussed.

Rolling over, Takeru placed his arm over his eyes, shielding them from the blinding light bulb above. Normally it wouldn't bother him, but today it was far too bright. It was shining down, revealing all parts of him he didn't want exposed, and was thankful no one was in his room with him to see.

He lay there for several minutes before a buzz swept him out of his racing thoughts. Sitting up, he reached over to his cellphone. Hikari texted him.

A smile crept to his lips, and it felt that a lot of the weight of his troubles dissolved into dust. The light bulb's harsh glare long forgotten as he grabbed his phone and propped his pillow under his arms.

Are you excited for tomorrow? I forgot to ask what time you wanted to meet, and where. Hikari wrote.

Takeru smiled at the cute emote and quickly typed out his reply, I'll be free all day. Whenever you feel comfortable getting up.

That's right. He was going to spend the day with Hikari tomorrow. A well-needed break after everything that's happened so far. Maybe Hikari could give suggestions on what to do about convincing his brother out of the military.

His brows creased into a frown. Perhaps not. It would likely be in bad taste to ask how to rope a brother out of something when her own brother was one of the leaders of the pro-digimon group. The very same digimon group he happened to be a part of. Plus he didn't know how pro-military Hikari really was. No, talking to her about that wouldn't be the best of ideas unless he kept vague. He could also talk to Patamon. Though the little digimon wouldn't know much about siblings, he could at least provide encouragement and support.

Getting up, Takeru changed his clothes and crawled into bed. His mind wasn't free of worry, but it was enough to keep his dreams pleasant.


	8. Chapter 8

Despite feeling too excited to sleep, Takeru woke up rather early, having fallen asleep not long after dinner. It would be a while before he met up with Hikari, so he chose to spend the time reflecting on his options.

Taking a shower and grabbing some breakfast, Takeru thought about what things he could possibly say to his father should he come over and discuss his decision. Then again, maybe he wouldn't bring it up until Takeru came over again. He couldn't avoid his father forever.

Perhaps he was being paranoid. He didn't have to mention anything about Patamon or the group he found himself associated with. Even so, knowing he was going to spend the entire day without having to think about everything at least for a little while helped keep his stress level down.

Takeru sat on the couch after checking the time and seeing he still had a little while left. His mom was already hard at work, typing furiously on the computer. Takeru turned on the TV, and a news report was airing.The channel was left since last night when his mom watched the evening news right before Takeru went to bed.

Just about to change the channel, Takeru paused when the woman started talking about recent digimon attacks, and the brief disappearance of Mimi Tachikawa. Takeru froze his finger hovering above the button. They were reporting on that after all. Even though she was gone for a few hours, it was still newsworthy.

"Oh, they were talking about that last night, too." Takeru turned to see his mom craning her neck to glance over at the screen, checking her work as she continued to type. "It makes me a little worried if it was just a coincidence or if they sought her out deliberately. Some people are saying it was intentional. I have my doubts."

"Who knows." Takeru mumbled, listening carefully for the story. To his surprise, Daisuke appeared in an interview with the news anchor. It made sense, as it was Daisuke that appeared first on the scene. He talked about the fight with Bitmon, and chasing after the infamous members of the digimon sympathizers group. Luckily Daisuke didn't give any names.

Then Mimi Tachikawa came on screen and Takeru's jaw clenched, feeling his body stiffening. This was it. She was going to talk about her kidnapping, how much she saw and what was happening in the Digital World.

He held his breath unconsciously, waiting for the anchor to stop babbling and let the brunette speak. Mimi gave a courteous smile as the mic was pointed to her lips. "Please tell us your feelings on being attacked."

"It was terrifying. One minute we were shopping in the mall, picking out clothes to try on, the next there was panic and screaming. People were rushing out. We tried leaving too, but the digimon cornered us. There was no way we could even leave the store. I thought we were seriously in trouble when the two masked men and more digimon showed up, but they fought against the digimon, and protected my friend, who was knocked unconscious. Then the boy over there arrived and chased after when I was being kidnapped."

"It seemed all very organized. It must have taken a lot of planning to be so elaborate. Right when the rest of the military group was busy with another digimon not far away. Do you think it was an attempt on your life?"

"Well, actually, I don't think the rebels were there specifically to capture me. I'm not sure what they were doing there, but they protected my friend and I from being attacked. Actually, I think them running away with me was because the digimon was at large. I'm not sure about the intentions of the digimon, though."

"They let you go a few hours after your kidnapping," The reporter elaborated. "if you feel comfortable, would you be willing to give us any details you might have seen?"

Mimi shook her head. "Unfortunately I didn't see much at all. They blindfolded me and I wasn't able to keep my bearings. They rarely spoke. I was so terrified I don't think I would remember anything anyway."

"You poor thing." The reporter said. "Is there anything else that you would like to say about your experience? What about security? I hear that your father has hired bodyguards." 

Mimi laughed, uncomfortable and nervous. She shifted her weight to the opposite foot, and back. "Um, well, it's just temporary. My father wants to make sure that I'll be safe, and I appreciate that. I don't want to go through that sort of thing again."

"Now that this has happened, are you going to become more active in your fathers studies?"

"Oh, no, no." Mimi shook her head, holding her hand up to wave it off. "I don't hold any interest in digimon, or fighting. I'd rather stay out of the whole thing. But it has been recent, so I might change my mind after thinking about it. I need to rest and collect my thoughts from the experience."

"That certainly sounds like a good plan. Thank you Mimi Tachikawa, Daisuke Motomiya." The reporter faced the camera. "These criminals are still at large and it's unknown just how dangerous they are to the public. However, they are digimon sympathizers, so it might be best for everyone to avoid them if seen and to call authorities."

Takeru turned off the TV, staring at the black screen. Did he hear that interview right? Maybe there was a different one where she revealed in greater detail everything she'd gone through. What if she didn't? She lied to the reporter after the fight with Bitmon. He didn't know how to feel about this, a mixture of feelings swirling in his chest. Had Willis and Taichi seen the news report? What would they think of it?

He stood up. "Mom, I'm going to spend today out with Hikari. Do you need me to pick up anything when I get back?"

"Dinner would be nice." His mom replied. "I think I'll be too busy today to do cooking. I don't mind what you get, so pick up what you like."

"Sounds good."

Hikari was waiting outside the apartment complex when Takeru walked out of the elevator. He paused for a second or two before collecting himself, raising his hand to greet her as he opened the door.

"Good morning, Hikari. You didn't have to walk all the way here. I thought we'd be meeting half way."

"Good morning, Takeru." Hikari smiled. "I know, but I left a little early so I thought I'd wait outside."

"Ah, I was going to leave early, too. But then I saw the..." He stopped, glancing at Hikari's face, his brows knitting.

"The news report, right?" Hikari said, her voice soft. She had a smile, but it seemed forced. "I didn't think brother would go that far. Kidnapping, I mean."

"So, you did see it." Takeru scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I'm sorry."

Hikari shook her head. "No, it's alright. I don't want to dwell on it today. I just want to have fun and get my mind off it."

He smiled, his shoulders relaxing. They were both wanting to evade the stress. He didn't know quite how stressed Hikari was over the news report. He wouldn't press her on it. "Yeah. Let's just not think about those kinds of things."

They talked about various things as they walked down the street, heading toward the main traffic roads. Takeru talked about his life in his previous home and school, and Hikari talked about her life in Odaiba. Her brother came up infrequently, always preceded by a brief pause. Before they knew it, they walked all the way to Ariake.

"Looks like we lost ourselves." Hikari said with a laugh. "I didn't think we'd get this far just wandering."

"Yeah. Since we're here, why not just go sightseeing? It's been forever since I've been over here. Has anything changed?"

Hikari shook her head. "Not much. There are military bases set up in Ariake to protect the area by sea. So you'll likely see military personnel all over. But I don't think all that much has changed. Maybe a building or two being closed down from attacks."

Takeru nodded. "It's the same back at my old neighbourhood. Not as many buildings being abandoned, but there were a few. I knew some guys in my class who would get in trouble for poking around in them after being sectioned off."

"They're lucky they didn't run into any danger." Hikari said, keeping her eyes to the ground. "They could be mistaken in their intentions and be suspected to work with my brother."

Takeru stopped, Hikari stopping just a moment later, wiping her eyes. "Hi-"

"I'm sorry, Takeru." She said, her voice strained. "We said we weren't going to talk about it."

"N-No! It's fine, Hikari. If you want to talk about it, we can. If there's something you need to say it would be better to say it and not bottle it up, right?"

There was a vending machine nearby. Takeru dug in his pocket and took out some loose change. He walked Hikari over to the vending machine and bought them both bottles of milk tea. They walked only a little ways until finding a bench to sit down. Hikari sat, thumbing the bottle and stared down at it intently. Twice she lifted her hand to wipe away a stray tear.

"I'm just worried about Taichi." Hikari said finally. "And I miss him a lot. He left so suddenly after he was discovered to be running around with that group. I didn't even get to ask him why."

Takeru fiddled with his drink as Hikari opened hers and took a long drink. "I can imagine it was hard. So you really didn't get to talk to Taichi about his decisions?"

Hikari shook her head. "He seemed like he was always busy, sneaking around or doing work. Mom and dad figured he had a secret girlfriend or something. Dad was even expecting he was training for something. Hoping that maybe Taichi'd go into the army. But he never said a word about what he was doing. If I could just talk to him... I think I'd be able to understand his mindset. Maybe I could understand why he risks himself like that. I don't even care if I have to be around digimon to see him."

"Hikari, do you mean that?" Takeru asked, carefully picking at his words. She sniffed.

"Yeah. If Taichi doesn't hate digimon, I at least want to know why."

He nodded. "I guess that's true. I hope that maybe one day you'll be able to bump into him somewhere. Then you can ask him all the questions in your heart. I'm sure he'd answer them happily."

A smile crept onto her lips. "Thanks, Takeru."

"You're welcome."

"I'm happy you'll at least be able to spend time with your brother, even if you are going to join the military." Hikari frowned as she mentioned the military, half emptying her bottle. "Daisuke always talks about what he does when he goes. But I still worry about the kind of things they make him do. You know, I never talked about these kinds of things with Daisuke."

"You haven't?" Takeru asked, surprised. He was sure Hikari and Daisuke were so close, considering he protected her from a lot of backlash from their classmates due to Taichi's actions. "You don't think I should join?"

"No, I don't think he'd listen to me if I told him. He might get offended, saying they were doing good work. I believe him, but I can't help how I feel. That it's a little too intense. I can't stop you if that's what you want to do. But I didn't expect you of all people to join. People change of course, so it can't be helped."

"You haven't changed." Takeru said, leaning closer to her just a little. He placed his hand on the bench between them for support. "You're still the same Hikari I remember."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I am?"

"W-Well, I mean, personality-wise. You've changed in a lot of ways, but not in any bad way." Takeru said hastily. Hikari laughed.

"Thanks."

"I'm not going to join in anything military." Takeru said. "At least I don't plan to. I don't have any desire to harm digimon. It upset my brother to hear that, because I guess he was expecting to see me more often than if I just visited on occasion. But that would mean my whole family being in the army aside from my mom. That would worry her sick. It would also make a friend of mine really upset, and I couldn't do that to either of them."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah." Takeru smiled softly at the thought of Patamon. "I was actually thinking of having my brother meet him, but I'm afraid of what he'll say. I don't want any bad feelings between us."

"A friend that you're afraid of your brother meeting? Who's that?"

"Would you like to meet him?" Takeru quickly searched her face. Hikari looked confused for a moment.

Takeru bit his lip. He said it without thinking. It was ridiculous to have Hikari meet Patamon, and here he was casually offering her to see him. She was already upset with her brother, and yet he was doing the exact same thing. The situation wasn't lost on him. Takeru opened his mouth to retract his offer, but before he could, Hikari answered.

"Sure, I'll meet him." Hikari said. Takeru blinked, closing his mouth. "I'd be happy to meet your friends. You don't seem like you have many here, so I'm glad you're already making new friends here so quickly."

"Y-Yeah. Well, unfortunately it's a bit of a ride over. I don't want to inconvenience you."

"It won't be an inconvenience." Hikari said. "We can go after school, or next week when we have more time. It will give your friend a chance to hear about me coming to visit. I don't want to come out of the blue. Oh, what do you think they'd like as a gift?"

"Uh, any food would be fine."

"By the way, what's your friend's name?"

Takeru couldn't tell if he was sweating from the question or the heat. "Pata."

Hikari gave him a look. "Pata? That's a weird name."

"It's a nickname." Takeru said hastily. "You'll understand why when you meet him."

"Oh. Okay." Hikari still seemed confused, but Takeru was lucky she didn't press the matter. They left the bench, walking along the shore and looking at the sights, the ocean, Tokyo Big Sight, and other buildings. Along the way they found an ice cream store. The bought tickets for the train home. Getting off the train, they took the scenic route around the island, walking to Palette Town and around to Decks Odaiba before finding themselves on the beach again.

Hikari took her shoes off and sat in the sand. Takeru joined her. Hikari looked like she had a lot of stress taken off of her, a lot more than earlier when they met. They talked about classes and homework, how thing were going with their after school activities. They occasionally got up, dusted the sand off and dipped their feet in the water.

She walked with him to the store to buy dinner for himself and his mother. Nothing special, just bento boxes. The walk home was slow, and they walked in a comfortable silence. Reaching the entrance to Hikari's apartments, she turned around.

"I had a lot of fun today, Takeru. It was nice hanging out with you properly."

"Yeah." Takeru smiled. "It's nice after everything's been so hectic. We should spend time together again, soon."

"Have a good dinner, Takeru." Hikari said, waving and disappearing into her apartment. Takeru walked home at a brisk pace, having walked slowly with Hikari despite the bento having been warmed.

After school the next day, Takeru took the train to Shibuya. It felt like such a long time since he had last been there, despite it being only a day and a half. After everything that happened with Daisuke and Mimi, there was a sense that everything was starting to change.

Patamon greeted Takeru at the door flapping vigorously after the latter announced himself. "Welcome back!" He tackled Takeru.

"Hey! You're acting like I haven't been around in a week." Takeru laughed.

"I missed you yesterday." Patamon pouted. "There wasn't all that much to do except watch Koushiro on his laptop. Willis, Terriermon and Lopmon were busy. So was Agumon and Taichi."

"I'm sorry, Patamon. I spent the day with my classmate."

"Hello." Koushiro's voice came from behind as the door opened with a nervous creak. "I'm back again. Ah, good afternoon, Takeru, Patamon."

"Good afternoon." They said in unison.

"So, Koushiro's been coming here often?" Takeru asked, as both boys took off their shoes. "Have you been learning a lot?"

"There's been a little progress. There's still a lot more to do, but yesterday I mostly became interested in how well certain things you can do normally on a regular computer could affect the Digital World. It doesn't seem like it's a straight conversion."

"That sounds complicated." Takeru said. He followed Koushiro into the living room area, where he left his laptop. There were a few mismatched other electronics attached in a sea of wires and cords. Koushiro jumped over what looked like a modem and sat cross legged on the floor. Tentomon was sleeping in the corner.

"Actually, I wanted to get you, Taichi and Willis here to show off my du--" Koushiro stopped talking when they heard the door creak open.

"Did you leave the door open?" Takeru whispered. Koushiro shook his head.

"I was sure I closed it."

Patamon crept into the corner with Tentomon and Takeru took a blanket off the couch, covering them. He slowly started to walk toward the entrance to the living room. He'd just be peeking at the door. There were many things it could be. Well, not many. But the first thing that came to mind was a kid. Sometimes kids ventured out of the safe zones to mess around.

Koushiro stood behind Takeru as they slowly made their way to the door. The door, which was ajar, moved again with a loud creak, making the boys jump. Mimi Tachikawa poked her head through.

"Hello!" She chirped, stepping inside now. "Looks like I did find the right house after all."

Takeru and Koushiro stared. Things were rushing through Takeru's mind at such a quick pace, there was no time to respond appropriately. Koushiro recovered first.

"I'm sorry, but what house were you looking for?" He asked slowly.

"Well, the hideout of course." Mimi said, placing her hands on her hips. "Don't deny it, either. I recognize this place a little, and you look at least a bit familiar. So I'm almost certain this is it."

"H-How... but we--" Takeru stopped as Mimi looked at him. He stood frozen under her gaze.

"You're blond, so that makes you Willis, right?"

"Uh--"

"Or are you that other one?" Mimi asked, sincerity in her voice.

"Th-the other one." Takeru muttered uncomfortably. She bent over to stare at him in the eye. Takeru leaned back. A sympathetic expression appeared on her face.

"You're even younger than Kamiya." She murmured. "What's with you, I thought you guys all would have been a lot older than you are. But you're just kids. My father can't really be worried about you."

"He worries about us?" Koushiro asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "I wouldn't think Keisuke Tachikawa cared about a rag-tag group of dissenters."

"Well, it wasn't until you guys kidnapped me that he really started getting concerned." Mimi said.

"That wasn't intentional." Takeru said, folding his arms across his chest. "Not completely. I was just doing what Taichi told me, mostly. I've never gone out before."

"I don't mean to be rude, Miss Tachikawa, but I'm curious what you're doing here, and how you found this place? Are you here to turn us into the authorities?" Koushiro said. Takeru relaxed when Mimi retreated to a much farther distance from him.

She frowned at Koushiro. "Fine, if you don't want any friendly greetings."

The two watched, confused as she turned to leave. Did they make a mistake and now she was going to call the police?

"H-hey, wait." Takeru only made it to the door when it swung open again. Takeru barely dodged getting hit in the head. Mimi was standing with two bags of fertilizer. She was carrying them the best she could, but the large, heavy bags were still slipping from underneath her small, delicate wrists.

"Oh, you came to help me? That's sweet." She dropped one of the bags into Takeru's chest with an 'oomph' from the younger male. Mimi walked inside. "You can help, too. I've been carrying these all the way from Uehara."

She dumped the other bag into Koushiro's arms. Koushiro stumbled back. "You walked from there to here?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Mimi laughed. "I took the bus. But I still had to carry it a fair distance."

"Why did you bring fertilizer here?" Takeru asked.

"You said you were trying to regrow things in that other world, didn't you? I thought a lot about what happened the other day. I felt that it would be better to see how far we get here, since there's another option."

"Is that why you lied in the news interview?" Takeru slowly made his way to the living room. He set down the bag next to Koushiro's computers.

"Well, they were getting a little too personal with the questions if you ask me. But I didn't technically lie. I just left out a few details." 

"I never thought you'd actually join us." Koushiro said. "Even I only joined the other week."

Mimi sat down, combing her fingers through her hair. "It's crazy. I know it's crazy. My dad always talked about how dangerous digimon were. I'm sure he did it so that I'd never put myself into a situation where I'd be around one intentionally. But after seeing everything... You guys working with digimon so harmoniously, and the state of that world. I had to reevaluate my perceptions."

"Not everyone is willing to do that. It's impressive." Koushiro said. He booted up his computer and started typing.

"Where's the other two?" Mimi asked.

"Patamon said Willis is out with his partners. I'm not sure where Taichi is."

"Taichi could be standing right behind you, Takeru." Takeru jumped, spinning around to see Taichi leaning against the door frame, arms folded over his chest. "Well, it seems our princess has returned to us. How'd you find your way back?"

"I made sure to remember the direction you walked me back to the station."

"We twirled you to make sure you wouldn't know which way. I guess that wasn't effective." Taichi sighed, rubbing his temple.

"Nope!" Mimi smiled. "Though you almost got me. Dance lessons were helpful for that."

"Well, I guess you're here now. You nearly gave me a heart attack the other night on the news." Taichi ran his fingers through his hair, shaking it. "Koushiro, has what you've been working on been successful?"

"Actually, I think it has. I might test it on the bags."

Mimi walked around to face Koushiro's computer, bending over to look. "What is it you have there?"

"This is a duplication program. It's just a test to see whether or not basic functions of the computer could still be used on the Digital World. Copy and Paste for example. I started working with Keisuke's thesis on duplication and how it could apply to something like, say the twin partners of Willis. But I'm leaning more towards being similar to a digital form of mitosis."

"Well, aren't you the clever one." Mimi said, ruffling Koushiro's hair. Koushiro ducked with a strangled cry of surprise, his cheeks tinting.

Mimi turned around to face Taichi, who was now joined by Willis. Terriermon and Lopmon were both in his arms. Willis was glaring at her. Mimi frowned back.

"That guy just keeps bringing more and more people, doesn't he?" Willis gestured at Takeru as he said this. "Now what's Keisuke Tachikawa's daughter doing here?"

"I came here because I wanted to." Mimi said defiantly. "And I don't appreciate being referred to as 'Keisuke Tachikawa's daughter' all the time. This daughter has a name. It's Mimi."

"Fine, sorry, Mimi. Why are you here?" Willis said, exasperation in his voice. "I don't exactly trust you due to who your father is."

"I know that. I just wanted to help Palmon, that's all."

"Palmon?" Willis raised a critical eyebrow at Taichi. The brunet held his hands up. "When we brought her here we kept her busy by having her spend time with the Palmon and Floramon. I guess she made a friend!"

"That's right, maybe I did." Mimi stamped over to Willis, puffing her chest out. "I brought the fertilizer here as a token of my sincerity. But I figured that wouldn't be enough, so I brought these."

Mimi dug into her purse, taking out two electronic devices. They were somewhat square, with heavily rounded edges. They were a metallic light blue colour. with three dark blue buttons and a black antennae. Willis picked up one.

"What are these?"

"They're something my dad was designing. I'm not sure if he completed testing or not. But they're a new portable weapon to use against digimon. They're supposed to shine a powerful anti-virus program or something and delete digimon. I thought... maybe you guys could do something with them, I don't know." Mimi shrugged, dropping her hand and stepping away.

Willis looked up at her, a gentle smile like something Takeru hadn't seen before on his lips. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I was too judgmental of you. It's been hard lately. I don't like trusting anyone unless we can be sure."

"Mimi, is it okay for you to betray your father like this?" Taichi asked, looking up from the device. Mimi's smile faltered.

"No. I actually felt awful. I didn't know if you were going to accept me. But, I think that if we can at least match him in power... Just please, don't destroy his work. Turn those into something else. Don't wreck them."

"I'll make sure they get put to good use, Mimi." Koushiro said. "You said that it deletes digimon? I'll have somewhere to look in it's programming now. Maybe I can reverse it to do something opposite."

"You mean like make our digimon stronger?" Takeru asked.

"It's a possibility." Koushiro said. "If that happens, we can be a little more aggressive when it comes to keeping digimon and humans from fighting. But I say we shouldn't be any less cautious."

"Sounds good. Koushiro, please start work on that right away." Taichi said.


	9. Chapter 9

"GAH!" Taichi's scream of pain rang through Takeru's ears as he was blasted by a digimon called Shellmon. There was a sickening crack as his body slammed against a building wall and crumpled to the ground.

"Taichi!" Willis yelled, jumping over the digimon's leg. Takeru ran a few steps, only to be stopped by the shell smashing against another building between them. Willis' cry of pain was heard, and Takeru tried desperately to see. However, the tight space and Shellmon's massive size made it impossible.

"Air Shot!" Patamon spat his attack at Shellmon, who was slowly crawling away from Takeru. The large digimon turned, creating an opening between it and the space between buildings to catch a glimpse of Taichi and Willis.

Willis was bleeding from the right shoulder. He was holding Taichi up with his good arm. The brunet was holding his head, which meant at least he was conscious.

A tentacle reached out and grabbed Patamon, whose screams were strangled by the fat tentacle closing over his mouth. Takeru stumbled, grasping his own head as images flashed through his memory. He couldn't get distracted.

With a defiant yell, Takeru lunged, jumping onto Shellmon's back and started climbing the spikes. Agumon's Baby Flame attacks were sufficient enough to distract Shellmon from the human climbing up his body. Even with help, Takeru still paused to dodge stray flying tentacles. He was getting more frustrated by the second. He could see Patamon's eyes roll to the back of his head.

He weighed his options. There was no time. He jumped, catching the tentacle with his arms and clutched to it tightly. Climbing up slowly, grasping at the appendage desperately with his legs, he reached toward Patamon. A few desperate tugs proved ineffective. Without thinking, Takeru opened his mouth and bit.

Shellmon shrieked, the tentacle loosening and Patamon fell to the ground. Tentomon swooped in, catching the unconscious digimon. With nothing to keep him there, Takeru dropped to the ground, narrowly missing being picked up himself.

Lopmon and Terriermon joined Agumon in attacking Shellmon. After setting Patamon on the ground to recover, Tentomon added to the assault. Slowly, the clumsy mollusc digimon stepped backward, ever so slowly inching back toward the breach it came from.

Takeru gently picked up Patamon, cradling him in his arms and jogged toward Willis and Taichi. Taichi was leaned up against the building. Willis was sitting away from the wall, trembling as he tried peeling his clothes off of his wound. Takeru bent down, helping to pull his shirt off.

It was a bite mark. Shellmon's jaws were more deadly than they looked. "Lay still." Takeru said, lengthening the shirt out and wrapping it around the wound. Willis' face scrunched and a grunt of pain growled in his throat.

"You need to go to a hospital." Koushiro said, bending down in front of Taichi. "Both of you."

"What?" Taichi leaned forward slightly. It was a mistake, as Taichi groaned and doubled over. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"He can't hear well. He might have double vision. My guess is a concussion." Koushiro said.

"No hospitals." Willis said. "I'm a foreigner. They'd need to see my medical card. If I go there I'll be held there until I'm arrested."

"You still need to get that shoulder treated." Koushiro huffed.

"The only thing I'm worried about right now is the lack of noise. The military are finished with their own fight and are coming over here. Let's go." Willis stood up, helping Taichi to his feet.

"I still think they should get some kind of help. Willis probably needs stitching." Koushiro whispered to Takeru as they followed behind. "Unfortunately the only solo medical personnel are military medics."

"Well, why don't we just get one of them over here?" Takeru asked. "I'm not sure how, but at least Willis' shoulder can be treated."

"The only way we can get a medic over here is if we pass off as civilians caught in the crossfire, or if we were to kidnap someone."

Takeru paused. "We do what we have to, right?"

"You're not serious." Koushiro said, his voice raising slightly. Willis looked back at them.

"What are you two muttering about?"

"Willis," Takeru jogged up to him, standing opposite to Taichi. "What if we get a military medic to treat you? We could pass you off as just people caught in the battle."

"I don't think that's a safe idea." Willis said. "As much as I'd like my shoulder to get treated properly, there's still the matter of our digimon. We need to get them out of here as well. We have to wait to get Patamon treated."

Takeru looked down at Patamon. He had fallen asleep in his arms. "Yeah, but Willis..."

"If you're that concerned, I won't stop you, Takeru." Willis said. "I just want you to be careful."

"R-right." Takeru gave Patamon to Koushiro and let them walk back to the breach they created. He faced the general direction they had seen the military fighting from and felt his heart thud hard in his chest.

The thudding would become more frequent as he spotted the uniforms and briefly wondered if he'd accidentally run into his father or Yamato. There was no sign of the digimon. There were soldiers laying or sitting, getting aid from the medical team. It was likely they also drove back the digimon they were fighting, or they destroyed it. A lump formed in Takeru's throat at the thought.

Willis said before their numbers were cut they used to face the military head on in battles like they did with digimon. He wondered if since they were growing again if they would be facing three-way battles instead of trying to force digimon back to the Digital World. How would the deletion devices that Mimi brought over two days ago help? So far there wasn't much word from Koushiro on their progress.

A tall, lanky man in a white coat looked up as Takeru approached. He adjusted his glasses. "Hey! This is a restricted area. You shouldn't be over here!"

Takeru shook himself to his senses. "Please, help! A friend of mine was attacked by a digimon. He needs medical care!"

The man stood up, grabbing a large bag of medical supplies and strode quickly over to Takeru. "Didn't you hear the evacuation order?" The name on his name tag read 'Jou Kido.'

"Yes, but there was a large digimon in an alleyway. It trapped us." Takeru said as he started back over to Willis and the others.

"Do you know where it went?" Jou asked.

"Not really. I think it ran off."

Jou sighed. "I should have asked for backup. Well, you'll just have to play lookout for me while I look at your friend." He dug in his pocket and took out a radio. "This is Medical Officer Jou Kido. A civilian has been injured. I'm leaving the area to tend to them. Please stand by if I need assistance."

Something moved out of the corner of their eyes. Jou stopped and turned around, squinting into the poorly lit alley. "Stay close. That might be trouble."

Takeru stepped closer to Jou. "It's this way." Another corner, and they arrived at the tear. The entrance to the Digital World was gone now. Patamon and the other digimon seemed to have gone through. Willis was leaning against a chain link fence. Taichi was hunched over, head in his hands.

Jou bent down in front of Willis, taking off his medical bag. Koushiro and Takeru stood behind Jou, looking out for any digimon that might still be roaming around as Jou cleaned and sterilized the wound area.

"Are you afraid of needles?" Takeru heard Jou ask.

"No." Willis said. "I'm not allergic, either."

"Good. Please bear with me, I'll work once the anaesthetic kicks in."

Takeru tried not to listen, and kept his mind and ears tuned for any noises besides the ones behind him. There was nothing but the litter of broken buildings and damaged boxes, bins and other alley debris.

Scanning his eyes for a third time, he now noticed a glint in the darkness. Takeru frowned, squinting his eyes to try and view it better. They were eyes. Large, round eyes staring back at him. Takeru took a step closer to Koushiro, not taking his eyes off the creature. He could barely make out a silhouette of a head; round with long ears and fur.

"How fast is it going?" Takeru asked.

Koushiro looked back at Jou and Willis. "He just started. They'll be a while yet. Why?"

Takeru frowned, jerking his chin slightly in the direction of the eyes, which hadn't moved. They did blink twice now. Koushiro moved his eyes roughly in the general direction until they settled on the eyes.

"What should we do?" Koushiro whispered.

Takeru shook his head. He didn't know. It was clearly a digimon. It was small, likely a weaker rank. He didn't know how hostile it was, or if it was scared. If they tried to approach it, would it attack or run away? Either option would be troublesome.

Takeru glanced back only for a moment, but when he did, the eyes were gone. Panic filled him as he searched desperately for the eyes. He walked over to the boxes and debris, searching closely. Nothing even resembling a digimon or other animal, just a trail in the dust that quickly disappeared.

"Shellmon really got you good, huh human?" Jou's scream echoed off the walls of the alley. Takeru and Koushiro ran back to the others. Jou, holding his medical tools as weapons was beside Willis along the wall. Willis was looking at the small digimon with mild surprise, sitting there with a large sanitized sleeve on his shoulder, which was bloodied from the wound dripping. His shoulder was only a quarter stitched, and the hook and thread dangled from his flesh where Jou dropped them.

The digimon was small and white with purple marks. It closely resembled a sea lion. It seemed to have no fear of Jou at all despite his military uniform, or Taichi and Willis for that matter. Willis leaned forward slightly, wincing from his shoulder.

"You're far away from home, little guy. I wouldn't think you'd want to show your face with all of us here."

"Why are you talking to it so casually!" Jou yelled. He fumbled for his radio and gun, his medical tools falling into his lap. Taichi grabbed Jou by the wrist, squeezing it until it was easy to pull the gun out.

"I'm known for being a bit of a violent guy, I admit." Taichi said, his voice light. "But even I have limits. No guns, army boy. I'll take the radio, too."

Jou hesitated, but eventually relinquished the radio at Taichi's prodding. He glared at the brunet, who tossed the radio to Koushiro. Taichi sat down immediately, still holding his head.

"Are you traitors? Rebels?" Jou asked. "Why in the world would you defend that thing?"

"Hey, that 'thing' has a name, you know." The little digimon huffed indignantly. "I'm called Gomamon."

"Something like that." Willis said. "We just won't stand for violence from a medical officer. Now, if you'd be so kind, I'd rather have my arm fixed up before the numbing goes away."

Jou didn't move, merely glaring at Willis. But upon prodding with Taichi at gunpoint, he went back to work.

"So, if you're not going to attack us, what are you doing here, Gomamon?" Willis asked, turning his attention to the digimon instead of the gore of his shoulder.

"Well, it was my job to do some reconnaissance. A little spy work. But I went through the wrong doorway. So I thought I'd just mind my own business, have a little fun. I've never been to the real world before. It's weird. Then I saw you all with other digimon so I figured if they weren't scared of you, why should I be?"

"How clever of you." Willis said. "However, it would have been better if you didn't come out to play until later."

"Eh, it's just one guy." Gomamon said, looking at Jou. "Even I could take on someone like that."

"I'm not a fighter. I'm a doctor." Jou said curtly.

"For a doctor, you sure shake a lot." Gomamon lifted his clawed flipper. Jou was shaking slightly as he worked on Willis' wound. "Scared, are you?"

"I'm not one for blood." Jou said. He kept his eyes focused on his work. "But I wanted to help people. So I became a doctor even if some aspects made me queasy. I figured I'd get over it eventually. It's a lot more rewarding actually going out there and learning by on the job experience than sitting at home wishing."

"That's actually laudable of you." Gomamon said.

"If you don't mind, I'm trying to concentrate. It will be your fault if I poke the needle through unevenly and my patient doesn't heal properly."

"Okay, okay. Just trying to relieve tension." Gomamon crawled away from Jou. Takeru laughed softly.

"He's got a firey spirit, that Gomamon." Takeru said. He watched as Gomamon turned around and started walking over to him, likely hearing his comment.

"Hey, buddy." Gomamon said, looking up at Takeru. He bent down to better face the small digimon. "You know where the water is from here?"

Takeru blinked. "We're in Ginza now. So you'd have to go through two firewall tolls to get to the Sumida River."

Gomamon's head sank. "It's not just the mission. I'm a water-based digimon. I do my best in the water."

"We'll find a way to get you to some water, Gomamon." Koushiro said. "Though we might have to take you back to the Digital World."

Gomamon backed up. "No, I don't want to go back there! I'd rather play here!"

"Okay, okay. We'll see." Koushiro said, hands gesturing downward as he looked around. "We're on the outskirts of Ginza. I think that's a twelve minute walk, even for a person walking normally. It might take you twice as long or more by yourself."

"But wait, I think the Ginza firewall still stretches to the Sumida River if we go in the direction of Shiodome." Takeru said. "So it's possible to get Gomamon to water if we head that way."

"We can do that, and on the way get rid of this guy." Willis said, gesturing to Jou.

"Wh-what?" Jou leaned back, his wide eyes fearful underneath his glasses.

"Calm down, I just meant we'd part ways with you. I want to be far away from a military group so you don't go running after us." Willis sighed. "Besides, we still have to take care of that guy over there, and make sure his concussion heals properly."

It was another twenty minutes before Willis' wounds were stitched up. Gomamon helped wash the blood off with a bottle of water. Willis put his shirt back on with slight difficulty after it was bandaged.

"Okay, we head toward the Sumida River. Watch out for anyone that might be trouble."

They kept as much to the back alleys and low traffic routes as possible, though there were't many people around. Most of them evacuated with the announcement of a digimon rampage. Down along the Inner Circular Route, Jou eventually bent over and picked up Gomamon.

"What are you doing?" Gomamon asked, trying his best to look up at the human despite the angle he was being held.

"We're going too slowly. I'd feel more comfortable if we could go at a faster pace." Jou said, keeping his voice low. "Besides, it's not going to stay this empty for long and I'd rather not be seen walking with a digimon."

"Oh, well, thanks I guess." Gomamon said, tucking himself in as Jou fitted the digimon inside his medical bag. They picked up their pace, heading toward the Hamarikyu Gardens.

Willis and Taichi stopped in their tracks just before they ran over the footpath to the forested area. Takeru, Koushiro and Jou stopped behind them.

"What's wrong?" Takeru asked. He looked around nervously. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Gomamon jump out of the medical bag and start crawling toward the footpath, slipping between and falling into the river with a plunk.

"The barrier's broken." Taichi said. "Looks like we've got trouble."

No sooner had Taichi said this when a large figure swooped down. The group ducked, but talons still picked Jou up by the shoulders, carrying him into the skies.

The digimon itself was brown and white, with goggles over its eyes, and a heart-shaped symbol on its forehead. It looked like it had some strange armour along its body.

Jou's yells were futile as the bird digimon flew higher and higher with him in tow. It was flying further away from the group and even the gardens. It picked up altitude, flying ever farther toward the centre of the river. Takeru watched, eyes wide and cursing that he couldn't do anything. It looked like the bird was going to drop Jou into the river and have the hard water's surface smash Jou's body.

Grasping desperately at his medical bag, Jou took a pair of medical scissors and stabbed the digimon's feet. There was a cry of pain and the talon let go. Jou cried out as half his body dropped. His medical bag slipped off his shoulders, plummeting toward the river below.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and stabbed the scissors into the other claw. The digimon let go, and Jou fell. At this height, he'd likely survive the fall. However, surviving the impact was the least of his worries.

Hitting the water with a large splash, Jou was nearly knocked out. Taichi leaned over the railing as though he was going to jump, but thought better of it when he clutched his head. Jou's head surfaced momentarily, taking a big gulp of water before sinking. Takeru looked around desperately, looking for an easy way to get in. Dragging Jou out would be impossible if the only option was jumping.

He removed his jacket and shoes, running barefoot into the gardens. From the bushes he could see Jou's head pop up again, this time with the round white head with a streak of red fur, which Takeru could only guess was Gomamon. He and Koushiro, who was trailing behind, ran waist deep into the river holding their arms out for Jou as Gomamon pushed with a moderate amount of difficulty to the shore.

They hauled him onto the bank, their hands slipping off his wet clothes and sat down in the tall grass, panting. Gomamon crawled out, sitting beside Jou, who was sputtering and coughing, but otherwise breathing. He looked over at the small digimon.

"Thank you." He whispered underneath a laboured breath. Gomamon smiled.

"It was no big deal." He said cheerily. "I decided I like you."

Jou laughed weakly, followed by another round of coughing. "You're not bad yourself, Gomamon." 

Willis and Taichi made their way down to the slope, stopping behind the three of them.

"Good. Looks like you made it out alive." Taichi said. "We can leave without feeling guilty."

"Leaving?" Jou said, looking up at the brunet. Taichi nodded.

"Well, being seen around you wouldn't be good for either party. We'll just leave quietly and you can go back to your section. Besides, Owlmon probably only left temporarily. It might be back." Jou looked down at Gomamon.

"What about him?"

"What about me?" Gomamon asked. "I'm not exactly a fighter. I'll hang about in the water and keep watch on things. Unless another opening forms around here I'm going nowhere fast."

"I never thought a digimon would save my life." Jou said, sitting up and leaning his arms against his knees. "Is this what the rebel group is fighting for?"

"Yeah, it is." Willis said. "We don't care what you do after this. As long as you remember what Gomamon did for you and keep that in mind as you make your decisions."

"I'm a doctor. I don't fight. I am not going to quit my job just because of this. There are people who need medical attention and that's what's important to me. But if you don't mind, I would like to visit you occasionally."

Visit. Right. That was something he discussed last week, too. Takeru nodded to Jou, with Gomamon agreeing. Willis left with a general direction of west of Shinjuku station if he ever wanted to meet up with the group. Takeru and the others followed. He walked with Taichi as they made their way to the train station. He thought about bringing it up several times over the trip. Keeping quiet until they were at least back in the hideout was the best option after all.

"Taichi?" Takeru's voice was tentative.

"What is it?"

"Um, how should I say this... What about Hikari?"

Taichi stopped. Takeru stopped and turned back to face Taichi, giving a worried, questioning look. "What about Hikari?"

"Well, I was wondering if you missed her. Of course you do but, I guess what I'm trying to say is how did you feel about leaving her?" Takeru flinched. Yeah this was going to go well.

Taichi made a grab for Takeru, who ducked out of the older man's reach. "Where do you get off asking something like that?" He growled through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry!" Takeru said, holding his hands up defensively. "It's just... I was talking with Hikari last week. After seeing that news report about Mimi she was really upset. She told me how hard it was on her that you never talked to her about why you made the decisions you did. So I was wondering your feelings."

Taichi lowered his hands, eyes cast down to the ground. Takeru lowered his guard. Willis and Koushiro were nowhere to be seen. Likely they saw the fight and left for them to sort things out, or moved on without hearing the skirmish.

"I was lonely." Taichi admitted. "And I felt guilty that I left like I did. I wish there was a calmer atmosphere that I could explain myself, or at least ease a bit of her heartache. I know she is bullied because of me, and I can't do anything to help her."

"What if you now have that chance?" Takeru asked. "Talk to Hikari for as long as you like?"

"What are you saying?" Taichi narrowed his eyes.

"I'm bringing Hikari here tomorrow. I promised her she'd meet my friend. I just never told her Patamon was a digimon."

"DON'T INVOLVE HER IN THIS!" Taichi screamed. Takeru stumbled backward. Taichi advanced on him. "Don't you dare get my baby sister wrapped up in this! It's exactly why I left like I did in the first place!"

"That's not your decision to make!" Takeru yelled back, standing his ground. Taichi glared. More calmly, quietly this time, Takeru tried to elaborate, carefully watching Taichi's movements in case he started throwing punches. "Hikari is her own person, isn't she? I'm not trying to recruit her. Inviting her to meet Patamon was a mistake, but it would be suspicious if I said no after. Hikari told me she wouldn't care about running into digimon if she got to see you again. Well, why not talk to her tomorrow?"

Taichi's rage ebbed and his stiff stance relaxed. His hands were balled into fists. "I don't know. I want to talk with her. But I won't forgive myself if she gets hurt."

"Why not wait and talk with her when she gets here tomorrow?" Takeru suggested. "I'm sure things will work out."

"Did you plan this?" Taichi asked, scratching the back of his neck. Takeru chuckled nervously.

"Well, no. But I figured that if Hikari was going to come here, she could visit you, too."

"You know it's not just me, right?" Taichi said. He walked over to the couch and sat down, holding his head in his hands. "Willis is worried. Ever since you joined we've been growing rapidly. There's more people, more secrets. A greater risk every time we come into contact with someone."

"It's only Koushiro and Mimi. Jou never said he'd join us." Takeru said, leaning against the wall. "That was all Gomamon, it had nothing to do with me."

"I guess not."

Takeru walked over to the fridge, taking out a bottle of water and an ice pack from the freezer. He handed them both to Taichi.

"Thanks." Taichi mumbled, his voice weary. "When's she coming?"

"Tomorrow."

"Alright. I just hope you know what you're doing."

Takeru had no idea what he was doing, or even if this was a good idea. He realized this the moment he met with Hikari at the train station. He kept mostly silent when on the train, talking with Hikari when she initiated conversation, but rarely took initiative himself to be social. Perhaps it was because he'd be afraid of what kind of things he'd say. At least Hikari didn't seem like she minded.

They arrived at Shinjuku station and Takeru led Hikari by the hand through the busy crowd and into the emptier streets. Most people avoided the areas near the attacked areas, or even places near the outskirts of barriers. Hikari looked increasingly nervous the closer they got to the hideout.

"Takeru, are you sure it's fine for us to go all the way over here?" Hikari asked, walking closer to him.

"Yeah, it's fine." Takeru said. He glanced down at her.

"I didn't know your friend lived outside the barrier."

"Some people have to." Takeru said. "It can be hard sometimes, but there hasn't been much activity around here at all."

"That's good." Hikari murmured. He led her to the hideout. Willis and Koushiro would be in the Digital World, along with Terriermon, Lopmon, Tentomon and Agumon. Taichi would be in the living room with Patamon. Takeru knew Taichi wouldn't likely make his presence known until he needed to. He only hoped Hikari would keep her mild manner after opening the door.

Hikari looked around, examining with her mouth slightly ajar at the run down look of the building. She took off her shoes, leaving them clumsily at the door and barely remembering to put on slippers. Takeru glanced into the living room, beckoning Patamon over. He took a deep breath.

"Hikari... I'd like you to meet my friend." Takeru said, holding his breath. Patamon flew into the hallway, landing on his shoulder. Hikari froze, her smile faltering as she stared at the digimon.

"T-Takeru, what...?" Hikari took a step toward the door. Takeru held his hand out to her.

"Please don't be scared." Takeru said. "He's harmless, I assure you."

"Your friend is a digimon? How did-- why... Takeru?" Her eyes were darting wildly, looking at Takeru's face, glancing at Patamon and back to Takeru.

"It's really a long story. We'd be happy to tell you, though!" Patamon said. Hikari's eyes grew wide and for a moment he was scared she'd faint.

"Hikari." Taichi's voice called gently from the other room. Slowly, he walked in, leaning his arm against the frame. He gave his sister a soft, apologetic smile. Hikari was leaning against the door now, and her face twisted as her eyes teared up.

"T-Taichi?" Her voice broke as she strangled back a sob. He had an uncomfortable look on his face and leaned forward as if he was going to embrace her. Hikari ran past Takeru and Patamon, tackling Taichi in a hug. He caught himself with his leg, and wrapped his arms around her. Taichi held her close. "I missed you." Takeru heard her whisper.

He leaned back, folding his arms across his chest as he watched the Yagami siblings reunite. A small smile graced his lips. Patamon was watching curiously, leaning far on Takeru's shoulders to get a good look.

Hikari broke the hug, wiping her eyes of tears and sniffed. She looked at Taichi and then at Takeru. "But this means Takeru is working with you?"

"Well, yes." Taichi said. "But he only came to us after meeting Patamon. Come sit down. Would you like some tea?"

They spent the next half an hour telling Hikari about how Takeru met Patamon, and how that got Taichi's attention. Taichi explained that he always felt the military was a little too brutal with how they handled digimon. He met Willis over online forum discussions when Willis posted a handful of critical posts about society's view of digimon. They planned on finding out how everything came together.

"I still didn't trust digimon." Taichi said. "I didn't understand how Willis and his partners could be so close. But after seeing Patamon and Takeru, I thought maybe it wasn't just an isolated incident. That maybe more people could understand digimon."

"But why all the way out in Shinjuku?" Hikari asked. "It's so far away from Odaiba."

"Well, this is around where those kids disappeared ten years ago." Taichi said. "This area has a lot of tears opening between this world and the Digital World. We figured that if we were going to get any answers, it would be here."

"Were you able to find anything?" Hikari asked. Taichi shook his head.

"Not much. We've been kept busy since it was just the two of us for the longest time. But I think we'll find more information soon now that our numbers are growing."

"There's more than just the three of you?" Hikari asked. The boys nodded.

"There's two more down in the Digital World, actually" Patamon said. "They became friends with us only a little while ago."

"I see." Hikari said. "So you guys have actually been to the Digital World?"

"Yeah. We're working with digimon there right now. Trying to see if we can help them." Taichi said.

There was a knock on the wall. The three of them turned to see Koushiro at the entrance way to the living room. "Sorry for interrupting. But I think I've finished working with the deletion devices Mimi brought us."


	10. Chapter 10

Taichi glanced at Takeru and stood up. Takeru stood as well, followed by a confused Hikari, still carrying her tea cup. They followed Koushiro down the stairs and through the doors that led into the Digital World. Hikari was trailing behind, taking in the scenery of the outdoors after having just gone downstairs into what would logically have been a basement.

Mimi and Willis were there, sitting in the small shack set up for basic workings. Mimi was sitting on a large stack of fertilizer, likely copied by Koushiro's duplication program. Willis was sitting in a chair, the back facing the table with Willis straddling the chair, arms resting on the back. Koushiro sat down in his own chair.

He held up one of the deletion devices. "This is the one I've been working on the most. Since Mimi only brought two, I have left the other one untouched for later duplication if something goes wrong with this one. However, my research has come to the point where I believe I have isolated the mechanism used to delete digimon and actually reversed the deletion properties. Of course, that simply wasn't enough if we were going to use Keisuke's weapons against him.

"Considering digimon have some special ability to change as they grow stronger, I looked into the process of how that might work and have come to this solution. This digivice, in theory, can cause a digimon to digivolve. These are terms we coined to differentiate from the original device and from evolution, since it's closer to a metamorphosis process and even then it's -- sorry, I went off on a tangent."

"So, it still hasn't been tested then?" Taichi asked. "How are we going to know if it still won't delete a digimon even though you tinkered with it?"

"Well, that's where the difficulty comes in. It will need to be beta tested. But considering this weapon is highly dangerous to digimon in the first place, I hesitate to casually ask for volunteers. Perhaps if there was a digimon that we were fighting for our lives against, I'd have few qualms about testing it in case the deletion process was still in effect."

"Well, there aren't many digimon so far that are after our heads. The digimon that are at war with Earth are usually only concerned with fighting for control over territory. Unless we make more of a splash, anyway." Willis said. "So finding a digimon for that situation isn't common. We could have used Shellmon the other day, but Koushiro hadn't completed his work."

"So, there's still the need for a volunteer." Taichi said. He looked over at Agumon, who nodded. "What about us?"

"You?" Koushiro asked. "But Taichi, what if I made a mistake? Like I said before, everything I've done is hypothetical. Until we actually test it there's no way to know for sure."

"If we can get something that is beneficial for our cause, I'd be willing to take the risk." Taichi said. "But it's Agumon's body."

"I want to try." Agumon said. He walked over to Koushiro. "I trust Koushiro's mind. Even if I die, I'll be happy to know I helped."

"Agumon..." Koushiro sighed. "Alright."

He gave the digivice to Taichi. He stood there, looking down at the device. "How is this thing supposed to work, exactly?"

"Keisuke had some sort of mechanism that only activated when the user was in danger. I liked that idea, so I decided to keep it. We can wait for a battle."

"Why not make a battle?" Willis suggested. "Terriermon and Lopmon against Agumon."

"Hang on, would that really work?" Mimi asked. "You're friends, aren't you? Wouldn't that mean it's not really dangerous?"

"Then I'd just have to make it dangerous. I won't hold back." Willis said, looking sternly at Taichi. The atmosphere suddenly became thick. Takeru looked between the two boys. He glanced over at Hikari. She sat back silently, watching as this conversation was taking place. He wondered what she was thinking.

"That's fine with me. I want to test this thing properly. So we need to make it realistic."

Willis stood up from his seat and started for the front door of the shack. Taichi and Agumon followed. Hikari stepped forward, before running after them. Koushiro and Mimi brought up the rear with Takeru. By the time the three of them exited, the fight already started.

Taichi and Willis were already some distance away, on opposite ends of some imaginary field. Terriermon and Lopmon were both running around, trying to get past Agumon, who was standing a ways in front of Taichi. Agumon would throw a fireball at either that crossed into Taichi's zone, causing the rabbit-like digimon to fall back.

This strategy didn't last long as Lopmon made it past Agumon with Terriermon divebombing Agumon. He ran toward Taichi, who dove to the ground to dodge an attack.

"Blazing Ice!" Taichi yelled in surprise when Lopmon's ice breath shrouded his arm, freezing it. He scrambled to his feet, holding his arm. Agumon rushed to Taichi's side, headbutting Lopmon away from him. Terriermon jumped from behind Agumon, using his head for leverage. Lopmon jumped as well.

"Double Typhoon!" Together, the twins started spinning, creating a massive tornado. Taichi fell to the ground, digging his fingers into the dirt as his body started lifting off the ground. Agumon fared better despite his smaller body, his claws anchoring him securely.

"Ah!" Taichi lost his grip, and was sucked into the tornado. A light shone from inside the tornado, and a harsh sound beeped repeatedly.

"I feel strange." Agumon said, as he began to glow. "Agumon digivolve to..."

"Greymon." In Agumon's place stood a massive orange and blue-striped dinosaur. He had a mask over his face with three horns, one on each side of his head, and one at the end of his nose. Easily, this larger digimon reached into the tornado, gripping Taichi and pulled him out. Immediately, Terriermon and Lopmon ceased, and stood in awe at the larger digimon in front of them.

Takeru barely paid attention as the familiar feeling of sickness overtook him. His body ran hot and cold at the same time, and his hands were shaking. Images he was now somewhat familiar with seeing flashed in his mind. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Patamon was doing about as well as him.

"Takeru? Are you okay?" He could hear Hikari to his left, but she felt distant.

Takeru grunted. "I-I'm fine. I just need water."

He somehow managed to pick Patamon up off the ground without spilling his guts before Hikari directed him back inside the shack. He sat down on a chair and leaned over, resting his chest on his legs, and let his head dangle. Hikari wordlessly placed a glass on the table. Takeru didn't touch it.

"What happened?" She sat down in the chair beside him. Takeru shook his head.

"I don't know." He slowly sat up, still not feeling well, but his mouth was dry. He took the glass and gulped down the water. The others came back into the shack, crowding around him. Annoyed, Takeru placed the glass next to Patamon for him to finish, and glared at Taichi and Willis.

"Where the hell do you two get off risking Agumon's life like that?" Takeru growled. Both men took a surprised step back.

"We wouldn't have done it if we weren't sure, Takeru." Willis said, trying to calm the boy down.

"That's not good enough! Koushiro said he wasn't sure! Yet you did it anyway!"

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Taichi said, brows knotting together. "Agumon's just fine!"

"That's not the point!" Takeru slammed his fist on the table.He whirled around, storming out of the shack and ran back to the breach. Patamon, getting a little colour back in his cheeks, flew after Takeru.

They rode the train together, back to Odaiba. Takeru had to stop a few times in order to get through a weak spot in the barriers, but by now he was knowledgeable of the weak points thanks to Willis. He was silent, even as he snuck Patamon in his backpack to his apartment, saying a dull hello to his mother before dropping onto his bed.

Patamon crawled out of the backpack, and fluttered to land beside Takeru's head.

"I know. I shouldn't have snapped at them like that." Takeru said, sighing as he turned his head away from Patamon. "I don't know what came over me. I don't know why I keep feeling sick like this."

"I felt sick, too." Patamon said. "I don't know why. Maybe because I'd been in danger like that before."

Takeru turned his head back toward Patamon. "You have?"

"I was deleted before, by a human." Patamon said lowly.

Takeru sat up, folding his legs on the bed. "When was this?"

"It was a long time ago. I barely remember it. I can't even remember what level I was, or what I was doing. All I can see are flashes of memory. A human's face here and there. But that's all."

"I see flashes too." Takeru said, holding his head in his hand. "Bright lights in my eyes, blinding me. I see a few faces, maybe a military uniform or two. The smell of wet dirt, and flashes of orange. For some reason it makes me want to throw up. I don't know why. I don't remember anything like this before."

He fell backwards onto his bed, letting his feet rest on his pillow. "Those deletion devices are dangerous. Lots of digimon are going to get destroyed in droves."

"I know. It will make confrontations with the military more dangerous than ever." Patamon said.

"We should destroy them." Takeru said, staring at his ceiling. "If we could find a way to get in there, and destroy their stock before they can send them out... It might not do much, but at least they can be delayed. Maybe we can even destroy Keisuke's notes."

"That won't make Mimi very happy." Patamon said. "She still cares for her father, and I'm guessing he spent a lot of time and effort into making them."

Takeru frowned. "Even so... They were still made to kill."

There was a knock at Takeru's door. Patamon scrambled under the bed and Takeru sat up. The door opened, and Takeru's father walked in. His eyes widened.

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

"I was talking with your mother. You looked so upset when you came home, I guess you didn't see me in the kitchen, or see my shoes at the door."

"I'm sorry." Takeru murmured. He moved over when his dad walked in, and the older man sat down beside Takeru.

"You look pale. Is everything alright?" Takeru looked down at the floor.

"I don't know." Takeru said. "I thought I was. But there was a fight and I lashed out. I felt sick."

"Was it a digimon fight?" Hiroaki asked softly. Takeru looked up at him.

"How did you know?" His father adjusted himself on the bed.

"Well, it has to do with something that happened eight years ago. We didn't think you'd remember."

"Eight years ago?"

"You were attacked by a digimon." Takeru stared at his father, unsure how to take this. He was attacked by a digimon? He wouldn't have been much older than eight. Why wouldn't he remember something like that? Takeru's eyes fell to the bed.

"I was?" He asked finally.

"Almost killed." His father said, running his hand through his short hair. "It's actually the reason why I quit my old job. I didn't want my family in danger."

"What happened?"

"We lost sight of you. Normally you'd go off to play with that little Yagami girl, but you weren't outside, and you weren't at her house. So we searched for you. We searched for over an hour and there wasn't any sign.

"Things were chaotic. We just started the war with digimon officially not even two years ago. We didn't know what to do, so we called the newly created Digimon Eradication Unit. Our fears were right. You were being attacked by a digimon. You were outside the save zone, in a trench left over from the destruction."

Takeru listened to his father's words, closing his eyes as he concentrated on the flashes of memory. Slowly, they grew from being segmented. He could see his father's face clearly. It was twisted into an expression of anger and worry. He slid down the trench, muddying his clothes. The military personnel were behind him, setting up bright lights. Takeru was huddled toward the back of the trench, covered from head to toe in mud. He held his hand out to his father, but it wasn't reaching out.

"What... what kind of digimon had me?" Takeru asked slowly. Though he was sure he already knew the answer.

"A Patamon."

Takeru felt sick, and leaned over. His father called out to him, placing a hand on his back. But he ignored it. He was being dragged away by his father, kicking and screaming, reaching out for the small orange digimon. He watched with wide eyes as the military closed over the tiny form, and Patamon's screams. Takeru could see the tiny pixels explode and scatter, dissolving into the wind as Patamon was deleted.

"It still affects you." Hiroaki murmured. "That's why your mother and I were talking.She says you've been acting different lately. Maybe coming back to Odaiba, where there are more attacks, did something to affect you subconsciously. We think it's best if you get over your trauma. I'm signing you up for the Junior Division."

He stayed there, curled up and concentrated on his breathing. His father kept calling to him and it was all Takeru could do to lift his arm up to show him he was alright. He could never tell him. He could never say that he wasn't nearly killed; that he and Patamon had been friends.He stayed there, curled up and concentrated on his breathing.

Hiroaki stood up, giving Takeru's shoulder a light squeeze and left him. Takeru didn't move until he was sure he heard the door close. Patamon crawled out from under the bed, his face pale.

"We... we were friends." Takeru whispered. "They murdered you right in front of me."

"I remember now." Patamon said. "You would often come outside the safe zone to play with me. I didn't think I'd ever have any memories from before I was deleted."

Takeru scooped up Patamon and held him close to his chest. He forgot on purpose. Maybe it was why he stayed that day, reuniting with Patamon like that. Things were starting to make sense, falling into place.

"You're not really going to join the military, are you Takeru?" Patamon asked. "What if they make you fight?"

"I don't want to join." Takeru said. "But if dad thinks that will make me better, I might not have any choice. But I can use it to our advantage."

Patamon curled up in Takeru's arms, but his expression told Takeru he wasn't so sure.

"I promise, I'll try everything I can to keep from going. I think what we're doing is much more productive."

He let Patamon spend the night, pulling him behind the pillow and against the corner of the wall where his mother couldn't see. It was unlikely she'd come in, but he didn't want to take the chance. He laid in bed, watching Patamon sleep and thinking about the memories that newly surfaced in his mind. He wondered how many other children were like him. Willis was one, and he knew now that he and the American were more alike than ever. They were both somewhat lucky. But how many people were found out and their friends destroyed?

He'd apologize to Taichi and the others tomorrow. The reversed deletion device worked. The digivice. A tool to help channel their energies to make digimon digivolve. That and the delevices brought a whole new level to the war. An uneasy feeling sat in Takeru's stomach. He had to make sure he kept up.

Takeru let Patamon fly out the window early in the morning. While it was still risky, it would be better than taking him to school. Daisuke was there, as well as many other people. At least this way Patamon mostly had to worry about sonar. If he kept to the water, he could make it out of Odaiba to the less heavily guarded inland sections.

To his surprise, Hikari was standing in the entrance. She was dressed for school, while Takeru still had on his pajamas. Takeru bit his lip, avoiding eye contact with Hikari as he slowly walked toward her.

"Hikari... I- what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to make sure you're alright. You were really upset yesterday."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I wasn't really thinking." Takeru gave an apologetic smile. "I plan on apologizing to everyone after school. I'll tell them everything."

Hikari cocked her head to the side. "You know why you lashed out like that?"

"Yeah." He looked around, searching for his mother. She was in her room, but Takeru still didn't want to risk it. "I'll talk to you about it on the way to school. Do you want to sit down?"

He directed Hikari to the living room, and she waited as he scrambled for his uniform and got something quickly to eat. He stopped to check himself in the mirror, flattening his hair as he chewed on a piece of toast.

He swallowed the last of his breakfast, and walked Hikari out of the apartment. They walked slowly, and Takeru told her in a low voice exactly what happened last night. Hikari had a grave expression on her face.

"So your dad thinks you should join the military because of that incident? What will you do about Patamon and your group?"

"I don't know." Takeru sighed. "I'll talk to him tonight and try to convince him to drop it. Patamon will likely tell the others when he gets back."

"He'll be alright, flying on his own?"

"Yeah, I think so. We know some secrets to getting around the city unharmed." Takeru said "Willis said it's harder every time they upgrade the shields, though."

Hikari nodded. "I'm not sure about everything, Takeru. But I talked more with my brother after you left. I think that he's doing something good. Your hearts are in the right place. Can I come visit occasionally?"

"Yeah!" Takeru smiled, his heart thumping. "You can help us out."

"Maybe I'll find my own partner." Hikari said softly. "But I guess that means I'd have to fight, too."

"You don't have to." Takeru said. "We'll all understand if you don't. Mimi hasn't fought with us yet."

"I think I might want to fight, if I bond with a digimon." Hikari said. "Because I couldn't stand doing the bare minimum for them. I just... hope no one at the school finds out that I am starting to follow Taichi."

"Nevermind about them." Takeru said. "All that matters is what we're doing. But I promise you, Hikari, we won't do anything to compromise you."

She smiled. "Thanks."

They reached the gates, and Takeru saw Daisuke was waiting at the entrance, his arms folded across his chest and a glare directed straight at Takeru. He groaned.

"Here's trouble." He muttered.

"Trouble?" Hikari looked over at Daisuke. "Daisuke's trouble?"

"Looks like he's going to be." Takeru said, and stopped in front of Daisuke, who straightened his posture to look authoritative. "I thought we got through th-"

"So, you actually went and did it." Daisuke said, still not looking all that pleased. Takeru blinked.

"Did what?"

"Don't be dumb! You actually signed up for the military. I don't know how but apparently you have the right qualifications to be accepted."

Takeru and Hikari exchanged surprised looks. "What? I never signed up!"

"Yeah? Well, your name is on the list for my division. Apparently Keisuke Tachikawa is going to be personally supervising you, too. Heck if I know why."


	11. Chapter 11

Takeru's head was reeling. How was it possible he was signed up so quickly? Had his father already sent in the forums before he talked to his mom? Why was Mimi's father going to supervise him? So many questions ran through Takeru's head he almost forgot he was with Daisuke and Hikari, standing in front of the school.

"But you listen here," Daisuke held his hand up to Takeru, leaning in. "you're gonna be under my team, so you are gonna start following my rules. No backtalk. We may be a digimon specialty division, but we're still part of the army."

Takeru frowned. "We're going to be late for class, Daisuke. You might be able to get out of trouble with your credentials, but I'm not part of your group yet, and Hikari isn't a part of it at all. Let's at least discuss this later."

Daisuke's face twisted, but he nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

They walked to their class together, Daisuke walking alongside Hikari. Takeru trailed back, his mind still lost in thought. It seemed his choice on the matter was no longer an option. He sat through his classes on autopilot, taking down notes due to habit, and twice he didn't notice when the teachers changed and they were onto a different subject. By the time lunch came around, Takeru was exhausted mentally. He knew the talk with Daisuke was coming, and he was dreading it.

He still didn't particularly care for Daisuke. Despite mostly leaving Takeru alone when he deemed him harmless, the aggressive encounter when they first met still lingered in his mind. He felt himself stiffen whenever he got too close in proximity and dreaded anything involving the possibility of them doing anything together.

That would become more frequent now. He knew keeping the small grudge against Daisuke was unfair. Perhaps he was wrong about him. He had an attitude that didn't mesh well with Takeru, but he could still see Daisuke cared. Everything he did was high energy and emotive. He didn't do anything half way unless it came to something he really wasn't interested in. In a way, Takeru admired that. Still, his general attitude and egotism was something prominent, and he could only wish that it would subside after they started working together.

Thinking about this gave Takeru a bit of energy as Daisuke approached him. Takeru pulled out his lunch box. Daisuke pulled up a chair and straddled it. He rested his arms against the back of the chair and stared intently at Takeru. He raised his eyebrow at the brunet.

"What, are you expecting me to talk first?" Takeru asked, picking up his chopsticks.

"Something like that." Daisuke said. "I'm mostly curious why Mr. Tachikawa is so interested in you."

Takeru shrugged. "I don't know. I was only thinking about joining to be with my family. But I changed my mind. It can't be helped if my dad signed me up for it after all."

"That doesn't explain much." Daisuke grumbled.

"Maybe because I met him a few months ago." Takeru shrugged. "He recognized my name, probably. I did tell him who my dad and brother were. How am I supposed to know?"

"Well, even if Mr. Tachikawa is interested in you, that doesn't mean you're gonna be staying with my group. We're the top group." Daisuke said, sounding almost like he was boasting. "You're an athletic guy, but that won't completely saving you from training. Just a heads up."

Takeru wondered if it was his imagination that he detected a gleefully sinister undertone to his words. Still, it was a much better encounter than Takeru had been dreading all morning. After school, his father's car was parked out front, the man leaning against the driver door with his arms and legs crossed. Hesitantly, Takeru walked over.

"We're not going to waste much time." His father said, walking around and opening the passenger door for Takeru. "You can go in your uniform, they won't mind the first day."

Takeru slipped into the car, the sensation of being in a strange vehicle unnerving him more than going back to Shinbashi did, if only for the moment. They were mostly silent on the drive across the rainbow bridge, which didn't help matters in the least. Takeru looked out the car window, watching the buildings and people pass by.

"When did you sign me up?" He asked finally, his voice low and nearly inaudible.

"This morning." Hiroaki said, his voice gravelly, like he hadn't spoken much today. "I was also surprised how fast they sorted you. But it seems like someone took a shine to you."

"You mean Keisuke Tachikawa?" Takeru looked over at his dad, who merely nodded. "But why? Why is he so interested in me?"

"It's possible he saw something in you." He said. "He could also want to test out how fast you can recover from your traumatic experiences. Who knows."

They arrived at the building. Even though it was a while ago, Takeru still recognized it as the building he took a trip to and met Tachikawa in front of. He followed his father meekly into the building, hunching his shoulders. There was paperwork to be filled out, and a lot of small talk. Thankfully most of the social aspect was filled in by his father. Takeru didn't know if he was capable of feeling talkative right now.

It wasn't long before Keisuke himself appeared. "Ah, Mr. Ishida. Very nice to meet you in person at last."

"Mr. Tachikawa. It's a pleasure. This is my son, Takeru."

Keisuke looked down at Takeru, smiling and held out his hand. "Yes, we've met before. Do you remember?"

"I remember." Takeru said, hesitantly taking his hand and shaking it.

"Good, good." Keisuke said, a kind smile appearing on his face. "If it's alright with you, I'm excited to get started. Shall I show you around and introduce you to your new team?"

"Um," Takeru looked up at his father, silently pleading that perhaps there was more left to do.

"I think it would be more interesting than him sticking around here." He said. "What do you think?"

"Yes. Please, show me around." Takeru said, trying not to sound awkward. He followed Keisuke down the hallway.

"The facility here is big, but it shouldn't be that hard to find your way around. Many of the rooms you'll not have to bother with." Keisuke explained, as they walked swiftly into the middle of the building. "It will be in the training arena where you'll spend most of your time. There are bed rooms here, in case you want to rest, aren't feeling good or want to spend the night. Of course since you're a high school student I wouldn't expect you to be that dedicated to us just yet." He laughed.

Takeru gave a weak smile. "N-no, not yet."

"You know my daughter is only a few years older than you. Graduating this year."

"Oh?" Takeru tried to sound curious, already knowing a lot about Mimi personally.

"She's not all that interested in these kinds of things of course. You'll likely not see her around. Ah, here are the medical rooms. And just over here are the showers." They entered a large dome-like structure, with the hallway splitting into two, railings reaching past the chest and beyond was a large expanse three floors to the training arena below. Takeru stopped and stared, gripping the bars tightly.

"We have an extensive arena for all kinds of training, and can fit many people in here if need be. This place is sturdy, and can be an emergency shelter if the area is lost temporarily. However, I doubt it will come to that. The bottom floor contains most of the supplies you'll be using, as well as some digimon we've captured."

"You keep digimon in here?" Takeru asked.

"Yes, for experiments and training." Keisuke said. "They're heavily guarded, so there's no need to worry."

Did he say that because of what his father told him about Takeru's past? He turned to Keisuke. "Mr. Tachikawa... why did you- why choose me specifically?"

Keisuke scratched his head, and walked over to stand beside Takeru, leaning against the rail. "Well, partially because your father is a friend and respected member of the Eradication Program. It would also be beneficial to better study the effects of digimon trauma on youths to combat it. But also... I felt something in you, Takeru. There was a certain fire in your eyes; a determination. I felt you were perfect for our program. So when your father suggested you, I wanted you in."

"What exactly will I be doing here that will be so different from everyone else?" Takeru asked. He saw what must have been Daisuke and his group walk out of a room at the bottom, weapons in hand. Daisuke had a towel around his neck.

"You won't be doing anything all that different from your group. But the group as a whole will focus more on my experiments than others." Keisuke said. "The more I research the Digital World, the more I'm finding, and the more ideas I come up with to stopping digimon. Even though I see someone else is starting to research, it won't stop me."

Takeru turned to him. "Someone else?"

"Yes, recently there has been someone else who is looking at the general code to the Digital World. Though I don't know who they are or where. I can only hope they're on our side. But they must be incredibly intelligent to do all that. In truth, it was't until a few days ago that I discovered them."

Takeru bit his lip. He must have been talking about Koushiro's research. He wondered how Keisuke would handle being told that a teenage boy was discovering most of his research was flawed.

He left the rail and beckoned Takeru to follow. He obliged. "So, Takeru, would you be willing to tell me a little about yourself?" Keisuke asked. "Your thoughts and feelings on all of this, perhaps?"

"Well, it's a little overwhelming to be honest." Takeru said. "I never thought I'd actually end up here."

"You were visiting a few months ago, so I assumed you already had an interest."

"I did. Not very big. But I was at least thinking about it at one..." Takeru trailed off when he looked up at a pair of men in white lab coats passing by. One of them was Jou. Takeru stiffened when Jou stopped, and looked right at him. His heart began to race and he could feel his palms sweat. Jou had seen his true face only a couple of days ago after the fight with Shellmon. He was going to be called out.

Jou frowned, looking at Takeru and over at Keisuke. "Someone new?"

"Yes, he just joined us today." Keisuke said.

Jou turned back to Takeru. "Have you had a proper medical examination?"

"A proper wh-no. No. I haven't." Takeru stuttered, confused. Jou sighed bowing to Keisuke.

"I apologize, Keisuke. But all new recruits should have a physical before officially joining. I thought you knew this. If you would be gracious enough to excuse my intrusion I'm going to steal your recruit for a little while."

"Ah, pardon me, Mr. Kido. In my enthusiasm, I must have let proper protocol slip my mind. It's very unlike me." He let Jou take Takeru by the arm and lead him with purpose back to the medical wing. Takeru followed, unsure what was happening.

Jou opened the door to an empty room and pulled Takeru in, locking the door behind them. He backed away from the older man, still feeling stiff.

"Well, I didn't think someone like you would ever show up here, and in broad daylight next to Keisuke Tachikawa of all people." Jou said. He turned around. "You seem to be in a complicated mess."

"You could say that." Takeru said. He sat when Jou gestured for Takeru to sit down. "My father recruited me all on his own. Now despite everything, here I am. I didn't expect to see you here. I thought you were going to call me out."

"I wouldn't do such a thing." Jou said, starting his examinations. "You were worried for your friends, and if it hadn't been for Gomamon, I would never have known you were a part of that group. It's not my place to say what you feel or believe in."

"Do you... still visit Gomamon?" Takeru asked hesitantly. "Is he doing alright?"

"I haven't had the time. Though if I am to be honest, I am not sure if I would. He saved my life, and I'm grateful for that. But he's still a digimon. My feelings are still mixed whenever I think about my stance. My feelings of being able to help people is my main concern."

Takeru nodded, and silently performed what Jou needed to. He was glad that he didn't call Takeru out as a traitor, or tell the military where to find Gomamon after they left.

"Tell me..." Jou said, sitting back down on the table and writing something down. "What's it like being in your group?"

"Uh, well we're small." Takeru said. "There's only about four of us, really. Humans, that is. There's quite a few digimon that are in our group, though they stay in the Digital World."

"The Digital World? You go there frequently?"

"Yes."

Jou was silent for a moment, and even stopped writing. "I would have thought it would be too toxic to go there regularly. But from this basic examination you seem fine. Your lung capacity is above average."

"The Digital World isn't toxic." Takeru said. "It has air, just like our world. It is in a bad state though. We mostly try and make the Digital World a better place for the digimon to live."

"I wonder how their world got like that. Mr. Tachikawa's research team brought back photos of a desolate world. They couldn't stay very long without breathing masks."

"I can assure you, Jou, you don't need breathing masks. You could even come see for yourself."

"You had invited me before." Jou nodded. "Somewhere near Shibuya, correct?"

"Yeah. If you tell me a day, I'll meet you."

"I'm off in three days. I'll come meet you in the morning. Ah-- well, maybe I should wait until after you're done with school. Unless you tell the other two."

"I could. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to see them much now." Takeru said. Jou shrugged.

"I can wait for the afternoon. It would be a good idea for me to get groceries and other chores anyway. I've been busy myself lately." He gestured for Takeru to stand. "Well, you look like you're in good health. You can go back to Keisuke now. Tell him I'm sorry again for making him wait."

Takeru thanked Jou and walked out, walking back to where they left Keisuke. However, he was gone. A note was left where they last stood, taped onto the railway. He needed to do important work and apologized for leaving before Takeru returned. But he told Takeru to feel free to wander. Takeru sighed, pocketing the note just in case he'd potentially get in trouble.

He supposed he could get a good layout of the building. It could be useful. Likely Keisuke kept a store of his inventions in here. He wandered around the ring of the arena and branched out. It was a circular building with the middle being the massive arena. But everything in between the arena and the outer wall seemed to be a maze. Most of the rooms seemed to be offices or living quarters with a few medical rooms in between. Once or twice Takeru stumbled on a kitchen or recreation room. He supposed the latter was for breaks or if an employee chose to mostly live in the building. It could also be an extra living space, or entertainment if the building needed to house civilians.

The second floor seemed to be more for research purposes. He found a couple store rooms containing rows upon rows of shelves fitted with various boxes and other things. There seemed to be a few computer labs, both for more general work and for what looked to be specific digimon research. One door opened to a dark room with red lights. He poked his head in, hoping no one would yell at him. No one seemed to be in the room, other than a lone woman. 

She was standing next to a cage, which was producing most of the light in the room. She was bent down at the knee, clipboard in hand. She seemed to be muttering to herself. Upon closer inspection, Takeru could see a pink bird-like digimon in the containment field. He craned his neck, and accidentally opened the door wider. It creaked loudly, causing the woman to stand up abruptly and whirl around.

"Who are you?" She demanded. She looked up and down at Takeru, her eyes narrowing. "This place is off limits to Juniors like you. Where is your uniform?"

"I just started today." Takeru said, stepping fully into the room. He held his hands up, letting the door close with a bang behind him. "Keisuke Tachikawa gave me a note saying I was allowed to explore. He didn't say anything about restricted areas. I'm sorry."

The woman glared at him suspiciously. Takeru dug in his back pocket for the note and held it up. She gestured for him to come closer. He carefully made his way down the steel grate steps and cautiously walked over to her. He couldn't help but stare at the pink digimon.

The woman inspected the paper. "Well, Takeru Takaishi, this is definitely Tachikawa's handwriting."

She put the paper down on a table and put her hands on her hips. Takeru was bent down looking at the Biyomon. It stared at him, feathers slightly ruffled with indignance, as though to say 'how dare you look at me'. He smiled.

"That's a specimen we're using for non-lethal experiments." The woman said. "Our team for this room isn't very large, so usually it's just me down here after peak hours. My name is Sora Takenouchi, by the way."

"Oh, sorry." Takeru gave her a small bow. "It's nice to meet you."

Sora sighed, shaking her head. "Well, I suppose if Tachikawa allows you in here, you can look around. But don't touch anything. That was the digimon we caught a few months ago in Odaiba."

"I was there." Takeru said, bending down and staring at the bird. "I watched the whole thing."

"Did you?" Sora placed her notes on the table beside Takeru's paper and walked back to him. "So you live in Odaiba?"

"I moved there recently to be closer to my brother and father. They work in the military. Dad is stationed at one of the Odaiba camps. I think my brother is stationed in Ariake."

"So your family is separated." Sora said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Takeru glanced over at Sora. "Were you... talking to Biyomon earlier?"

Sora stiffened, her back straightening. "It can get maddening in here. I talk at it to help with the solitude."

"Does... does it talk back?" He waited tentatively for the answer. He watched Sora's expression carefully. She stared at Biyomon, who had turned it's attention toward Sora after she came over, and rarely took its eyes off her since. Around Sora, Takeru was invisible to it.

"...Sometimes." Sora said finally. "I didn't think digimon could talk, or would talk to us. But I guess confiding in it... I don't know."

She turned away, and walked back over to the table, sitting in the chair. Her eyes stared at the Biyomon with heavy lids. Under the strange light, it didn't look like she was sleeping well. She looked like she had something on her mind. Takeru didn't think it was his place to pry.

"I'll go now." Takeru said. "It was nice meeting you."

He took his paper and made his way toward the grated steps. "Wait." Takeru turned around. "I would appreciate it if you didn't... mention any of this to anyone. About talking to-around Biyomon. Some people might get the wrong impression."

Takeru gave her a smile. "Don't worry. There's nothing wrong with talking. I won't say anything."

He left Sora with a smile on her face, and continued his exploration, tucking his note back in his pocket. Eventually he made it to the last floor. Many of the doors were locked here, and Takeru suspected this was because of the weapons technology. The kitchen was larger on this floor, as was the rec room. They were also significantly messier. He was sure he saw Daisuke's jacket on one of the chairs.

"Who let you wander on your own?" Takeru jumped, whirling around to see Daisuke with three boys behind him. Two of them Takeru saw before when they were fighting Bitmon. He put a hand to his chest.

"You scared me."

"If something like that scares you, you're going to have a hard time here." Daisuke said. He walked over to his jacket, pulling it off the chair.

"So you're the new recruit." The boy with the neatly cropped hair said. He inspected Takeru. "I must say I do agree with Daisuke that you don't look army material. Then again, neither did I. My name's Ken Ichijouji. This over here is Iori Hida."

"Hello." Iori said.

"Hello." Takeru said. "Um, forgive me but... aren't you a little young to be in the military?"

"I'm unofficially a member." Iori said. "I help out with things while my mother works."

"I see." Takeru looked to the last member, the only one he had never seen before. "And you are?"

"I'm Aoi Minemura." He said. Aoi had short cropped black hair, and was easily the most well muscled out of all of them. He hung back from the rest of them. "I go to Ken's school."

"So, Tachikawa wanted you and then left? I wouldn't think he'd just leave you to wander around." Daisuke said. "I would have thought you'd at least come greet your new teammates. Rather rude of you."

Takeru frowned. "It took me a while to find the stairs. Besides, there's nothing wrong with learning the layout of this place."

"I suppose not. So, you up for a spar?" Daisuke glanced at the two older friends, smirking. They smirked back.

"Spar?" Takeru frowned. "You mean fight? Here?"

"In the arena, dummy." Daisuke rolled his eyes. "I wanna see how you far in battle."

"I'll go get Kairi, Minami and Satoru." Aoi said, disappearing out into the hallway.

"Is it just me or is he taking some sadistic pleasure at the idea of this?" Takeru murmured under his breath.

He wasn't even sure he wanted to spar with Daisuke. He had no training. He didn't know how to fight. It became clearer to him as they approached the arena they might be setting him up in some kind of trap. Hazing? No matter. Takeru wouldn't easily let Daisuke get the best of him.

They walked out into the arena and already Takeru's body was pumping with adrenaline. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Aoi with another boy and two girls. They were on the sidelines, soon joined by Iori and Ken. He turned his attention fully to Daisuke, who once again took his jacket off.

"We'll go with just our fists. Then if you're still conscious we'll see how well you are with a weapon." His voice was dripping with superiority. The hair on Takeru's neck stood up.

He was going to go at him for real. He tried to keep his fidgety body from shaking. If they didn't start moving soon, his body might move on it's own. Daisuke on the other hand seemed to be enjoying how nervous Takeru was.

Daisuke jumped at him and Takeru dodged. Daisuke swung his arm, barely missing Takeru's head. He ducked, balling his fist and aiming for Daisuke's chest. He caught Takeru's fist, pushing it to the side and held on to keep him from escaping. Takeru felt a powerful blow to his chest as Daisuke kicked him right in the chest. The force of the blow sent him back, stretching his arm at the shoulder joint. Daisuke wrapped his other arm around Takeru's neck, restricting his air.

Takeru cried out, and dropped to his knees. Daisuke let go of his neck and arm, which he held, rubbing tenderly. He glared at Daisuke.

"Is that all you've got? I thought you'd be stronger than that." Daisuke taunted. With a growl, Takeru leaped at Daisuke, tackling him to the ground. He managed to land two punches to the face before Daisuke threw him off. Takeru landed roughly on the ground, barely missing landing directly on his sore shoulder.

"Don't rough him up too badly, Daisuke!" One of the girls called. "We still need to break him in!"

Daisuke recovered faster and ran at Takeru, who was scrambling to get into a defensive position. He grabbed Takeru by the scruff of the shirt, throwing him back onto the ground. Takeru got up, running at Daisuke. He got behind Takeru, grabbing him around the neck again, and forced his arm painfully behind his back. He let go, and Takeru whirled around, attempting to punch at Daisuke again. He dodged, pushing Takeru's hand down and swung his hand, landing the hit on Takeru's throat.

He sank to the floor, coughing and held his throat. Daisuke towered over Takeru, a smug smirk on his lips. "I am breaking him in, Kairi."

"You're such a showoff." Takeru choked through strained breaths. Daisuke shrugged.

"Maybe, but at least I know when I'm gonna shine." He bent over to help Takeru up. He struggled out of Daisuke's grasp. "Whoa, whoa, feisty. I'm calling the match. I might have hit you a bit too hard. Don't want to injure you for real, y'know."

"I can stand on my own." Takeru growled. "You didn't hurt me that bad."

"No, but I could've."

"Just what is your pr-oughblem?" Takeru tried to yell at Daisuke, only to find himself in another small coughing fit when trying to raise his voice. "I've never fought before. You--"

"I'm breaking you in." Daisuke said. "Testing to see what you've got already. You have stamina, and you're stubborn. I'll give you that, but I know just how little skill you have and what you have to work on. I'm not going to deny it, I thoroughly enjoyed kicking your butt. What, you think that just because you're Keisuke's favourite we're going to go easy on you? You think the digimon will go easy on you? You have to train like the rest of us and it's going to be hard."

Daisuke walked away, leaving Ken and the two girls with Takeru. The rest them followed Daisuke back to the rec room.

"He is right, Takeru." Ken said, giving him an apologetic smile. "I don't exactly know why he's being as cocky as he is, but it was a good idea for us to test how much we have to teach you, and your skill picking stuff up."

"Yeah? Some teacher he didn't even tell me how well I did."

"I think you did well." The short haired brunette said. "Daisuke's one of the best though, so you really didn't stand a chance."

"Wow, thanks." Takeru said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm being serious, though. Once you learn the basics, I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly. Do you need a drink?"

"Y-Yeah. Thanks."

"I'm Kairi Mogami, by the way."

"And I'm Minami Endo." The other girl, who had shoulder length black hair said.

They entered the kitchen to get water. Takeru sat down, leaning back against the chair. From the room next door, he heard Daisuke yelling.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" He screamed. "He's just a trainee, and that's experimental technology you're talking about! You'll kill him!"

"Calm down!" Aoi's voice said, sounding annoyed. "If we train him up a bit first he won't be that much of a rookie. Come on, Daisuke. Where's your sense of fun?"

Thanking Kairi for the glass of water, Takeru gulped it down and walked over to the rec room. The four boys looked over at Takeru when he entered. Curious to what the commotion was, the rest of their group followed.

"What's going on?" Ken asked. Daisuke folded his arms across his chest, glaring at Aoi. Aoi was leaning against a couch, his arms also folded. He rolled his eyes and let out a loud, exasperated sigh.

"This idiot thinks it's a bright idea to make Takeru go up against a Champion for his official initiation."

"What? No!" Minami cried. "How could you think that's a good idea? Satoru!"

"What?" Satoru asked. "I think it's fair, Minami."

"What? That's crazy, Aoi. We don't even deal with Champions." Ken scolded.

"Yeah, but if we use Keisuke's new weapons it shouldn't be too hard." Aoi said. "We all have to learn how to use them eventually anyway. Why not use it as an opportunity to have Takeru show us what he's capable of?"

"I'll do it." Takeru said. "But I want to be trained properly first. Don't just send me in like you did with that fight out there."

"Of course not." Daisuke huffed. "Fine. But you have to be on standby in case something goes wrong. And you," He walked over to Takeru. "I want you properly trained. I want you nearly as good as me. I don't want you dead under my watch."

"Yes, sir." Takeru made a mock salute. Daisuke slapped his hand away.

"Stop that, I'm serious."

"So am I. If you're going to train me, we need to at least get along a little better."

Daisuke's expression softened. "Good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I finally added some chapters to this website. I apologize for taking so long, my main site is still ff.net and I've been busy/lazy. Please tell me what you think of the series so far, critique or just general thought is highly appreciated. What was your reaction to Takeru joining the military? How do you think Takeru and Daisuke's relationship is forming and is it going in a place you expected?


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